


Seabound

by Ladaur



Category: One Piece
Genre: Blood and Injury, Canon Compliant, F/M, M/M, Original Character(s), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Self-Insert, Swearing, Underage Fighting, other relationship tags to be added - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-20
Updated: 2019-06-27
Packaged: 2019-10-13 14:13:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 21,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17489525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ladaur/pseuds/Ladaur
Summary: When Monkey D. Luffy turned 17 years old, he set out to become the pirate king and find the one piece. What he did not expect on his first journey to encounter a young woman falling from the sky. This sets Luffy down the same path of adventure. Same faces, same scenarios, but more opportunities. But just what are deep within the ocean of the young woman's soul? And how will she affect the rest of the crew as time goes on? Only time, and history itself will tell.





	1. Prologue - The Sky Maiden and The Crescent Moon.

**Author's Note:**

> After a long-awaited hiatus, I am back with a new story I hope to actually stick to and not abandon within two weeks. After convincing from a few friends on a discord server, I have decided to grace the world... with a OC fanfiction. I will warn you now of the following:  
> This will not contain any anime only fillers as I will use the manga as the template.  
> This will contain OC X Character in the future  
> This will contain Mary Sue powers.  
> This might contain cringy/OOC moments as I suck at writing certain characters.  
> So, with the warnings out of the way, enjoy the prologue!

_All I see is darkness. All I feel is emptiness. All I can think of is blank. Did I do it? Did I finally take that step? I did. I did it. I did it. I did it. I did it-_

_Why am I joking with myself like this? What I did have left heavy marks on the ones I love, but I did it for them. I did it to protect them. I have no regrets, I should have no regret. But instead am I wallowing in this black space of thought about what I've done, like it’s a crime. But I know better, I know that they will now be safe._

* * *

 

”I’m hungry~!” Luffy whines as he was leans over the side of the boat, watching the vast ocean as the boat slowly drifts to who knows where.

He has for the past days been without food and any contact outside for two enemy ships that he easily took down. He was utterly bored. But that boredom was about to end as he spots something in the distance. A black figure is falling from the sky!

”Hmm? What’s that?” Luffy says as he leans forward to try see better, putting his hand up to cover the sun.

He takes a closer look and starts to see bits of the figure. It appears to be something or someone small, rapidly falling towards the ocean head first. Luffy does not hesitate and pulls his arm backwards, stretching as far as he need with his devil fruit powers.

”Gum-Gum Grapple!” Luffy shouts as he launches the arm towards the figure, spiraling round to properly haul the figure in to the ship. Luffy, however, forget how physics work and realizes too late as the figure crashes into him upon landing on the boat. He quickly recovers, he is rubber after all, and now fully see what he managed to catch;

A young woman lays before him, unconscious. She has short, blue hair that covers almost up to her hairline, which shows signs of a dark brown color growing from her scalp. She is wearing black brace trousers with a white long-sleeved shirt underneath, black combat boots on her feet. The small boat can barely hold the two of them as Luffy looks around to see if he notices anything off. No weird markings, no wounds or weapons to be seen and he can’t see any ships or islands nearby where she can have been flung from. Does that mean she flew herself here on her own?! He watches with anticipation as she stirs and wakes up, almost being thrown off the boat as she sits up quickly, taking in the scene around her. She is clearly startled by something.

“Woah, slow down, the boat will capsize if you keep thrashing! I can’t swim!” Luffy shouts to get her attention. The woman stops and turns to him, she seems to have been too deep in thought to notice him, which makes her blind, according to Luffy. She takes a long took at Luffy, which makes Luffy laugh.

“You are an idiot, aren’t you?” This seems to make the woman speak up after that remark.

“Idiot!? Do you wake up on an unknown boat with a stranger and are not afraid at all?”

“Nope! Shi shi shi!” Luffy continues smiling widely as the woman simply stares at him in confusion.

“So, you are not afraid of strangers?”

“Nope!”

“Not at all?”

“Nope!” The woman sighs, giving up on the conversation. “So, what is your name then, since you rescued me I should at least know the name of my savior?”

“The name is Luffy, the future king of the pirates!”

“Very well, future king of the pirates- “Luffy sticks his tongue out after her sarcastic input “-the name is Jennifer, a pleasure to meet you I suppose.”

“Shi shi shi, oh yeah that reminds me, how come you fell from the sky?”

“The sky?” Jennifer is clearly confused by his question.

“Yeah, the sky! If I did not catch you, you would have fallen into the ocean!”

“I actually don’t know…” Jennifer glances downward on her legs.

“You don’t know?”

“No, I remember begin home and…” Jennifer hesitates “… and then it just went dark.”

“Were you just not sleeping?”

“How the hell would I sleep while falling!?”

“Because you are tired? Is that not why you sleep?”

“That is not how- you know what I give up.” Jennifer rubs her hands against her forehead, trying to suppress her annoyance.

“Hey, look a pirate ship!” Luffy suddenly yells out, pointing towards the horizon, where a large ship is visible in the distance.

“Set sail!”

“Wait what!? Why are we charging them!?”

“To beat them up, obviously!”

“Do you know how many it could be on a ship that large, there is no way you could take them all down!”

“I’m really strong, there is no way they can beat me.”

“Ok, I’m sorry but you look like walking noodles, how are you supposed to do exactly that?”

“Do what exactly!?” A third voice interjects. This is when Jennifer notices that during the entire conversation, Luffy had sailed up to the ship, grabbed her and climbed onboard the ship, now surrounded by said crew of the ship.

“Wait, why am I onboard!?”

“Why not, you can fight right?”

“Huh? Wait no I cannot fight- “

“Shut up you two! How dare you enter the ship of Crescent Moon Gyari! Who are you even!?” A short, fat man with a moustache asks, wearing stereotypical pirate captain outfit.

“I’m Monkey D. Luffy, the future pirate king.” Luffy answers.

“H-how can you just casually say that…?” Jennifer keeps getting more confused.

“Who is the captain of this ship? Is it the one with the weird beard?”

Everyone on the ship is stunned, the captain is furious.

“Men! Get those brats right now!” Gyari yells, pointing at the duo.

A few of the men approach the duo, Jennifer starts backing, but Luffy takes aim with his fist and quickly punch the closest pirates off the ship. With some quick maneuvers Luffy had not only taken out the remaining men, but also tied them up, including the captain. Jennifer is simply staring in awe as Luffy heads to the bow.

“Fighting people made me hungry, mah, there are food stores there.” Luffy turns to Jennifer. “Hey, you want to go and eat? I’m hungry”

“Eh, how? I don’t have any money.”

“No worries, I can fix that!”

“Bastard!!! Just who do you think I am!? Don’t think you’ll get away with this!” Gyari is yelling from where he is tied up with two of his men. “I just let me guard down! I lost because my guard was down! Wait, what!? I didn’t lose! As if I could lose, idiot!”

Gyari lowers his voice. “I heard a rumor that there was a guy going around taking over ships but… What grudge do you have against us to do such crap!”

“I wasn’t planning on fighting. You guys started attacking me, remember?” Luffy responds. “Weird beard, right- “

“Who’s the one picking a fight!” Gyari starts yelling again.

“-All the pirates up to now did the same thing.” Luffy finishes his sentence.

“Maybe you should start by not stating their obvious flaws…” Jennifer mumbles to herself.

“…But this time you picked the wrong enemy. You have angered a person no one in the world wants to make an enemy of, the man who will become the most feared in East Blue, Crescent Moon Gyari- “

“Sir, they are gone.” One of his henchmen interrupt him.

“Oh, they are.” Gyari takes a second. “I’ll kill them!” And proceeds to head bash his henchman.

* * *

 

“This is a quiet village, huh…” Luffy walks down the street, Jennifer right next to him.

“I mean, we did just arrive on a pirate ship, they are all probably hiding.” Jennifer responds. “What are you going to do with them anyway?”

“I’ll set those guys free somewhere far away out at sea. If they got out here and started rampaging about, it’d seem like we brought them here.”

“We? You were the one who charged that pirate ship and boarded!”

“You boarded with me.”

“But that was because u pulled me along without my consent!”

“Oh hi, you have a strange head, huh?” Luffy is now focused on an elderly man in front of them.

“How about you stop ignore people and don’t say what you directly see about people!?” Jennifer retorts.

“I am this village’s headman! We’ll listen to your demands.” The elderly man responds.

“Oh no, you must be mistaken, we are not- “

“Where can I get food?” Luffy interrupts Jennifer.

“Right this way!” The headman points to a nearby house.

“Oh, thank you very much!” Luffy walks towards the house mentioned. Jennifer looks between Luffy and the headsman before she quickly walks after Luffy into the building. They enter the quiet and almost empty bar, seeing an elderly woman behind the counter and a younger woman sitting on one of the nearby tables. The elderly woman greets the duo as the younger woman turns to Luffy and charges with her sword.

“Prepare yourself, pirates!” She cries out. Luffy falls backwards avoiding the attack.

“Wait, neither of us are pirates!” Luffy yells back, holding his hand in front of him to signal her to hold. “Not yet anyway.”

“You are the only one wanting to become a pirate, I was pulled along since an hour ago!” Jennifer mumbles.

“Eh?” The young woman sheathes her sword. “No wonder, I thought you both looked weak, neither of you don’t have weapons either.”

The elderly woman places down food in front of Luffy, who thanks her and starts devouring the plates of food. Jennifer snatches a plate of fish before he gets his hands on it. The younger woman introduces her as Shiruku.

“But that ship is Gyari’s, isn’t it? Where are they- “

“This is good! Ah, this is gross! This is good! This too, but this one’s gross!” Luffy interrupts while eating. Jennifer smacks him on the head.

“How about you start listening to what people are saying first!?”

“Listen to what I’m saying.”

“How about you listen first!?”

“I’m going to become a peace main.”

“Peace main?” Both Shiruku and Jennifer asks. Luffy starts telling them how there are different pirates in the world, the violent ones and the peace mains who only go out for adventures and fight the violent raiders. He tells them the story about his straw hat and how he received it from Shanks when he was young. Shiruku relates to the story and starts telling how she is the daughter of a pirate who left her at the village when she was newborn and how the villagers raised her as one of their own without any grudge against her for just having the blood of a pirate.

“… Because they are treasured people to me, even if I’m alone, I’ll fight! There were pirates on that ship, right!?” Shiruku finishes her story.

“Right, Gyari and his men! We need to get rid of them.” Jennifer stands up. “I don’t know how I can help, but let me help you Shiruku, we can’t just let them be!”

“Thank you! I appreciate the help none the less!”

“Ah, thanks for the food.” Luffy thanks the elderly woman at the bar disk.

“How about you listen to us for once!?” Jennifer and Shiruku yells at him as they follow him out of the bar.

“Gyari?” Luffy asks. “Who’s that? What a weird name.”

“How could you forget about the guy you punched on that ship earlier!?” Jennifer asks.

“He really was there? What did you guys do with him?” Shiruku asks.

“Luffy tied them up and just left for the- “

“I won’t forgive you, you insect gathering bastards!” The trio turns to the road and sees Gyari and his two henchmen. “The man who can make even a crying child shut up, Gyari is me!”

“Eh… Gyari?” Shiruku says.

“Ah. He did say his name, didn’t he?” Luffy asks.

“Of course, he did! How could you have missed that earlier!?” Jennifer retorts.

“Crescent moon Gyari!?” Shiruku realizes who it is.

“That’s correct, little girl! Are you scared?” Gyari smirks at her, then turns sour when he spots Luffy and Jennifer. “Ah, hold on. After I kill these brats, I’ll help myself to all the treasure in this town!”

“He’s right here! What were you saying!” Shiruku turns to Jennifer.

“Some of his men must have cut him loose.” Jennifer responds.

“Ohh, you were talking about him, he’s here.” Luffy says.

“We can see that, idiot!” Jennifer retorts.

“Just what did you do to them? They’re so angry!” Shiruku asks, looking at the duo next to her.

“They came attacking us first, that weird mustache.” Luffy squints at Gyari, who is shouting something in the distance.

“Maybe because we boarded their ship without permission and you called his moustache weird?” Jennifer sighs, she has no idea how deep Luffy’s ignorance goes.

“Go, slice them apart!” Gyari yells as his two henchmen charges towards them.

“You cowards! Attacking unarmed opponents!?” Shiruku starts unsheathing her sword, but Luffy stops her.

“It’s fine, I don’t use a weapon, stand back for a second.”

Luffy walks towards the two henchmen, once they try and slash him, he jumps over them and lands on the other side. The two henchmen are confused for a split second, which gives Luffy the opening to smack them from behind using his devil fruit powers. Shiruku and Jennifer are both stunned, it’s the first time they have seen devil fruit powers in action.

“They’re down, huh?” Luffy smiles as he turns to the duo.

“Wha, what just…!? His arm stretched?” Shiruku says, Jennifer simply nodding in amazement.

“Surprised? I told you I ate the Gomu Gomu fruit, right?” Luffy answers. “Because of that I- “

“You really piss me off! Just die already!” Gyari shouts as he shoots Luffy with his pistol, hitting him in the stomach. Horror falls over both women as they watch Luffy stagger backwards, only to then launch the bullet away like he was a slingshot.

“Ahh, that surprised me!” Luffy pats his stomach.

“Pistols… don’t w-work either!” Gyari is shocked. Silence falls for a moment, and then both Gyari and the two henchmen break out into screams as they take off, screaming bloody murders at Luffy. Luffy turns to the others.

“Like I was saying, my whole body is rubber. It’s the trade-off for never being able to swim, cool, right?” Luffy pinches his cheeks and pulls at them, stretching them to impossible lengths to demonstrate his powers. “Anyway, I better catch those guys. If they start destroying this town, I’ll feel bad afterwards.”

“A rubber man…” Shiruku mumbles to herself.

“Hard to believe, yeah.” Jennifer whispers to her.

“I’ll catch them!” Luffy sprints off in the same directions as the pirates. He passes the next street and is immediately jumped on by the other villagers and ends up being tied up.

“We did it! We caught him! Crescent moon Gyari!” The headman cheers alongside the other villagers.

“Aren’t you making a mistake?” Luffy casually asks, which causes some villagers to retort him. Jennifer and Shiruku are running up towards to headman.

“Headman! You’re wrong! He’s not Gyari!” Shiruku yells.

“Please release him! He’s not a pirate!” Jennifer yells after her.

“That’s correct!” Gyari laughs as he exits his hiding spot with his henchmen. “Good job, idiots!”

“We were too late!” Shiruku says.

“I am Gyari. My mustache is a crescent moon, right?” Gyari smirks towards the villagers. That is when the entire atmosphere becomes stale and all villagers realize their mistake. Shiruku can not take it anymore and charges at Gyari but are easily knocked back by him. She keeps going at him for several minutes without any success.

“Still planning on fighting?” Gyari laughs at Shiruku, who tries to retaliate.

“Stop already, Shiruku!” The headman shouts at her, causing her stop freeze.

“But, if we hand over our valuables now, this village will start to become easy prey for pirates again!”

“These aren’t opponents we can match. We can’t sacrifice our lives.”

Shiruku steps down, sheathing her sword and taking a step back.

“No matter how you look at it, that’s a weird beard.” Luffy sighs.

“Did you say something!?” Gyari roars as he kicks Luffy, but then gets annoyed as he remembers that Luffy is s rubber man. “Damn rubber!” Gyari turns his attention to Jennifer.

“Men grab all the valuables in this village and tie that girl up!” Gyari points to Jennifer. “We are bringing her along to show this brat a lesson.”

“Damn it!” Jennifer hisses as she backs to run away, but the henchmen quickly catch her and ties her up.

* * *

 

“Ha ha ha this is a good haul!” Gyari laughs as he watches his men move the treasure onboard their ship. Both Luffy and Jennifer are standing tied up next to Gyari, who turns his attention to Luffy. “What’s left is throwing this guy into the sea!”

“Please save me.” Luffy says blankly.

“As if, idiot! You really made a mockery of this great pirate, Gyari-sama!” Gyari snatches Luffy’s straw hat from him. “Drag this other brat onboard the ship and make sure she can’t escape, I’ll deal with her later!”

Jennifer is dragged onboard the ship, she keeps struggling but to no avail as the men ties her up to their mast pole. Jennifer can see something flying across the sky and she realizes that it’s Luffy. She bites her underlip to contain her fright as she watches Gyari and his two henchmen join the others on the deck and set sail. After they have made some distance from the village, Gyari walks up to her.

“Now then, what to do with this second brat?” Gyari laughs as he turns to his men for advice.

“Sell her!”

“Make her walk the plank!”

“Keep her for housekeeping!”

“Ha ha ha, those are some good ideas men!” Gyari cackles. “Ok how about this- “

Something crashes onto the bow of the ship, causing everyone to knock over and stop in their tracks. As everyone’s attention turns to the bow, they see a figure in the smoke.

“Captain!”

“What is it!?”

The men’s expressions turn into horror when they see who it is, while for Jennifer she is relieved.

“Bastard! Why are you alive!? And how did you get on this ship!?” Gyari screams in horror.

“Luffy, you are alright!” Jennifer says.

“Shi shi shi, I’ll take this back- “ Luffy snatches his hat back from Gyari. “- and I’ll take this back.” He jumps over to where Jennifer is being tied up and unties her from the pole.

“You smashed my treasure. I’ll also take back that village’s treasure.”

“What!? That shouldn’t concern you!” Gyari retaliates.

“By the way, is your treasure this ship?” Luffy flashes his iconic grin, which causes Gyari to start rambling. He yells something about slicing him in half and telling his men to attack, but his men are standing in the background, whistling and trying to ignore him.

“I’ll smash and sink your treasure.”

“Do-Don’t say such ridiculous things!”

“I’ll do it.” Luffy puts on his straw hat. All of Gyari’s men are jumping overboard to try and escape what destruction Luffy is going to cause.

“Oi, wait you bastards!”

Luffy launches his foot towards the sky, having his leg stretch from his powers. He grabs a hold of Jennifer. “Hold on, I’ll smash it!”

“Stop him!!! Hurry and stop him!!!”

But Gyari’s wails are in wain, as Luffy proceeds to pulls his leg back in with such force that he splits the ship in two pieces. As all scramble to swim away, Luffy carries Jennifer to his small boat and grab the village’s treasure on the way.

* * *

 

“This is way more than the treasure we lost.”

“He said that he could not carry it all on his ship.”

“I wonder why he did not run off with it?”

Luffy smiles as he prepares his boat for take-off, with Jennifer, Shiruku and the headman watching him. He finishes his preparations and turn to the others.

“I’m sorry for all the misunderstanding, thank you so much for saving this village!” The headman bows in head in shame.

“Shi shi shi, it’s ok! I am a future pirate myself after all!” Luffy laughs at the headman’s intense bowing.

“I can’t thank you either, after everything we did to you, you still saved us all. I hope to meet more peace mains like you in the future.” Shiruku smiles.

“I bet you will!” Luffy turns to Jennifer, who seems deep in thought. She notices him staring and looks at him with a confused look. She raises her eyebrow as Luffy’s stare becomes more intense.

“What is it? Should you not be off?”

“Yeah, but will you fine here, you are not from here no?”

“That is true, but don’t worry- “ Jennifer attempts to give a genuine smile as she watches the sky “- it’s not like I have anything to return to anymore.”

“….” Luffy’s iconic smile flashes.

“I have decided!”

“Decided what?”

“Join my crew!”

“Ehh?” Jennifer’s surprise is visible on her face as she turns back to Luffy.

“You heard me, join my crew!”

“But, why? I have not done anything to help you, I have been more of a burden to you then anything.”

“I don’t care, you are weird and mysterious! Also, an idiot.”

“Excuse me!?”

“Shi shi shi, see, a big idiot!” Jennifer mumbles something as she turns away in annoyance.

“But there is no way I can fight, I don’t have any powers like you or strength to punch someone.”

“I don’t care! You are fun to hang around!” Jennifer is taken back by that statement.

“I am fun… to be with?”

“Yeah! I am the only one right now, but I am planning to get more people, so please be the first to join!” Luffy’s smile never falters from his face. It’s like he knows Jennifer cannot resist his offer. Jennifer turns back towards him, she watches him for a moment, to find any signs of lies or deceit, but all she can find his pure truth. A smile grows on her face.

“Alright, I’ll join.”

“Really!?”

“Really.”

“Woho! I did it, my first crewmember!” Luffy lifts his arms in a victory pose as his smile brightens. Shiruku and the headman smiles with him as Jennifer boards the small boat.

“Set sail!”

“Aye captain!”

“Farewell younglings!”

“Stay safe both of you, thank you so much!”

The small boat sets sail from the village, Luffy and Jennifer watch the horizon as the island grows smaller and smaller, the great ocean of East Blue in front of them. The amount of adventures awaiting both will be plenty, a story retold many times with many differences in characters, relationships and conclusions. This is just another one in the vast ocean of possibilities, the story of how one woman found her dream.

Her dream of finding a place to belong.


	2. Chapter 1 - The Free Wind

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The updates for this fanfic may be in weird spurts or longer periods, but I plan for each chapter to stay around 2-3k words each, also I should revive my other fanfic, but my brain hurts from rewriting plots too much, so that one will be updated less frequently as this one. Also hello let some strawhats swear so I've added that tag.

The days go on as the newly formed duo sails the vast ocean of East Blue looking for adventure. Luffy tells Jennifer more about his powers and what effects he has of being submerged in water. Jennifer listen with amusement as Luffy explains the three different types of devil fruit powers. He did find it funny how she had no idea what devil fruits were to begin with, but he knows there are some ignorant and sheltered people out there with no experience on the outside world, his late brother Sabo was one of them until he met him and Ace. Jennifer discovers bits and pieces of Luffy’s quirks and personality, how he is a big glutton, rushes into action spontaneously and is pure hearted, as proven by the entire encounter by Gyari. She can’t put her finger on it, but it’s like Luffy himself is radiating friendly aura around him.

And it is making her a bit uncomfortable.

Don’t get her wrong, she does not mind it at all, but she is not used to this situation in general and her social anxiety sometimes kicks in. She is not used to being around people often.

”I’m hungry~!” Luffy groans.

”And who’s fault is it that we are out of food for a week in two days?”

”But it was so good~”

”Yes, but now we have no food and we have no idea when we will find another island.”

Luffy grumbles as he sinks further into the boat, like he is melting. Jennifer sighs and decides that this is a good time to take a nap. She has no idea how long she has slept when she wakes up from Luffy shouting;

”A whirlpool!”

Jennifer springs up and is almost thrown overboard when a large wave hits the side of the boat. The boat is fighting with the waves to stay afloat. They are about to get sucked into the large whirlpool, Luffy just watching it get closer.

”Ah, a whirlpool, how careless of me.”

”What are you doing!? We need to get away from it!”

”Eh, but there are no one around and I can’t swim anyway, not that it matters since swimming won’t save us here.” Luffy smacks his hand lightly on his other palm, like he figured out a math problem.

”Is that why you are so calm, accepting death already!?”

A large wave from the whirlpool hits the side of the ship, sending both tumbling. Jennifer scratches her head and sees one of the barrels they had received to contain some of their fruit from the village. She opens the lid and climbs into it, reaching out to Luffy;

”Hurry climb in!”

”Ah! You are so smart, I did not think of the barrel!”

”I don’t care, hurry!” 

Jennifer pulls Luffy to prompt him to climb into the barrel. They both barely manage to fit into the barrel and shut the lid solid before the boat is swallowed by the whirlpool, sending their barrel to the depths below. They have no clue how time passes, they spend their time having small idle chatter before Luffy decides it’s a great idea to nap when the barrel could break at any moment, but it’s better than think about drowning so Jennifer joins the nap session. Luckily for them, the barrel manages to find shore. None of them notice the barrel have stopped moving until someone starts rolling the barrel, causing Jennifer to wake up from her nap. She starts feeling motion sick from the rolling of the barrel and uses every bit of her power to not puke. As the spinning slows down, she can start hearing voices from the outside.

”What? You’re saying that barrel of sake got washed up on the shore, Coby?”

”Y-yes, there seems to be something inside it, what should we do with it?”

“Great! Let’s all drink together!”

“But if the captain finds out, we’ll be- “

“She won’t find out!”

Luffy wakes up, rubbing his eye as he starts listening in to the voices. Jennifer is desperately trying not to puke as her face turns green. She needs fresh air fast, and Luffy notices it.

“We’re the only ones cleaning the wine cellar, so only us and stupid Coby will know about this.”

“You’re right!”

“You know what to do, right Coby!?”

Luffy smirks as he starts shuffling in the barrel, preparing to launch.

“Of-Of course! I-I haven’t seen anything! Eh ehehe!” Coby waves in hands in front of him. “S-so please don’t beat me!”

“Ahhhhhhhh!” Luffy shouts as he launches himself out of the barrel, scaring all the pirates in the room.

“What a nice nap that was!” Luffy looks down in the barrel “Looks like we’re saved! I thought we were going to die too! Ha ha ha ha!”

Jennifer slowly lifts her upper body over the edge of the barrel, taking deep breaths to still her motion sickness. “Ugh, I may have overcome motion sickness on cars and boats… but apparently not in barrels.” It’s then that she looks up and sees all pirates starting at them.

“Who are you?”

“Who the heck is you!?” The pirates yell at Luffy’s question.

“Why would people be coming out of a wine barrel!?”

“Stop slacking off!”

The entire shack explodes as something crashes into it with high speed, sending the barrel containing Luffy and Jennifer tumbling into the forest. The barrel stops after a while, Luffy laughing as Jennifer slowly slips out of the barrel to almost kiss the ground beneath her.

“Um… Are you alright? Did any of you get hurt? You got knocked pretty far.” A young boy with bright, pink hair stands in front of them. Luffy’s laughter slows down so he can breathe, while Jennifer turns her head towards the young boy.

“I’m fine, just a little surprised, that’s all. I’m Luffy! And the one dying over there is my friend Jennifer!” Coby turns to her, who lightly waves her hand from where she is laying on the ground, attempting to smile as she recovers. “What is this place?”

“This is the breeding ground of the pirate Iron Mace Alvida. I’m a caretaker on this ship, my name is Coby.”

“I see. Actually, that’s not important.” Luffy lifts himself out of the barrel, making sure not to step on Jennifer. “Do you have a small boat? Ours got caught in a whirlpool.”

“Whirl-Whirlpool!? You were caught in a whirlpool!? A normal person would’ve died already. You… you want a small boat? Well, I have one, but…”

“Hmm?” Jennifer mumbles as Luffy lifts her up so they can follow Coby to where he is hiding a boat. When they arrive and see the boat, it turns out it’s mostly made from loose blanks and is bulky.

“What’s this? A coffin?”

“That’s a boat I built secretly for two years.”

“Spent two years? You… don’t want it anymore?” Jennifer pokes Luffy to signal him to let her down, letting her stand up and dust herself off. “Why did you build this to begin with?”

“Yea, I don’t want it anymore. I was going to run away in this, but I don’t have the guts to do it. Looks like I’m going to be a caretaker my whole life.” Coby starts shaking a bit. “Although… I do have something else I want to do.”

“Then you should leave.” Luffy says, with Jennifer nodding in the background and she adds; “You should not let her dictate your life like that. You should honestly leave.”

“No-no I can’t! It’ll never work! Whenever I think of Alvida-sama finding out, my legs turn all mushy! I get so scared!” Coby shakes his head furiously.

“That day, I was only fishing… But I accidentally walked onto this ship! I had to become a caretaker on that ship for two years to stay alive…”

“You’re pretty stupid and useless and you seem kind of wimpy too, I don’t like you.” Jennifer smacks Luffy’s head.

“Stop being so fucking direct to people and apologize!”

“No but, he’s right. If only I was brave enough… Hey, why do you both sail?”

“I want to become the pirate king!” Luffy gives Coby his signature grin.

“He pulled me along for the ride.” Jennifer sighs next to him.

“What!? Pirate King was the title of someone who has had everything in the world! Are you telling me that you’re looking for the world’s greatest treasure, the One Piece!?” Coby starts increasing his volume as he rambles on. “You want to die or something!? All the pirates in the world are looking for that treasure!”

“Well, so am I-“

“Impossible! Absolutely impossible! Utterly, utterly impossible! To become the pirate king in the pirate era, there’s no chance! Utterly impossible!” Luffy hits Coby after that interruption.

“Ow! Why’d you hit me!?”

“Because I couldn’t stand you!”

“I understand your concern Coby…” Jennifer starts off “- But some people are just stubborn like Luffy, which is why there are so many pirates out there, in the open seas looking for treasure and their dreams.”

“Yeah, I’m not afraid of dying! Because it’s my dream and that’s why I won’t mind dying for it.” Coby takes a moment of consideration after hearing Luffy’s declaration. He whispers something that neither Luffy or Jennifer hear.

“Besides, I think I can do it, although it could get pretty tough.” Jennifer nods in agreement and turns to Coby, who is now in tears.

“Will I also… be able to accomplish my dream…?” Coby starts his question “- Will I be able… to become a marine!?”

“A marine?”

“I know it means that we’ll be enemies! But joining the marines and catching bad guys has always been my dream! Do you think I can do it!? I’d rather die trying than stay here and be a caretaker my entire life! And then Alvida-sama, I’ll be able to arrest her!”

“Who did you say you are going to arrest, Coby!?” Alvida smashes Coby’s boat out of no where “Do you think you can escape from me!?”

“Is that who you hired to capture me? They don’t seem to be part of Roronoa Zoro’s gang. Anyway, before you die, I’m going to ask you…” Alvida’s men slowly trickle out of the forest “Who is the most beautiful woman in the sea, Coby!?”

“Eh hehe, o-of course that would be-“

“Who’s this rude woman?” Luffy points at Alvida, causing her and the entire crew to drop their jaws.

“That kid-!”

“He dares to-!?”

“Luffy-san! Quick, repeat after me! In all the seas, this lady is-“

“Really? This is the woman that kept you captive for two years? Damn is she ugly.” Jennifer tried her hardest not to look annoyed, but you can clearly see her fidgeting while looking at Alvida.

“Not you too, Jennifer-san! Please r-repeat after… after me…” Coby realize something “the… the… rudest bitch on the sea!”

Alvida’s eyes darken as she steps closer to Coby, Luffy is laughing at the outburst and Jennifer is smirking at Coby. Alvida grinds her teeth as she glares at Coby.

“You little brat!” she roars, causing Coby to freeze in his place.

“Well said Coby! Now get behind me!” Luffy steps in front of Coby.

“All of you have to die!” Alvida slams her iron mace on Luffy, who blocks it with his head.

“I-impossible, my bludgeon!”

“It’s useless against me, because my body is rubber!” Everyone except Jennifer is shocked to see Luffy’s devil fruit in action, as he pulls his left arm backwards to create distance between his fist and Alvida.

“Gomu Gomu no… Pistol!” Luffy launches his arm towards Alvida, who takes the punch fully against her face, which sends her flying and knocking her out.

“His arm extended!?”

“Captain!”

“Alvida-sama was beaten by that monster!”

“We need to avenge her, hurry men!” A couple of Alvida’s men raise their swords and charge against them. They focus mostly on Luffy, trying to slash him as he dodges and moves out of their attacks, however some of them are going for Jennifer and Coby.

“Take out the weak links!” One of them men shouts as he aims to strike Coby, who is bracing himself in fear for the impact. Jennifer reaches out to Coby.

“No, leave him alone!”

Jennifer feels the wind tickle her stretched out arm as it blows up in front of her, sending the pirate attacking Coby flying. Everyone is shocked at the action, including Jennifer, who pulls her hand back to look at it, turning it around to see if anything is off and if she just did that. The pirates nearby slowly start to back away, which prompts Jennifer to try use her newly found powers again, by aiming her hand at the fleeing pirates to see if she could replicate it. She feels the same tickling of the wind as a small whirlwind is created in the center of the pirates, sending them flying in several directions, knocking them out. She pulls her hand back again to observe her palm of her hands.

“What did she just do!?”

“She’s also a devil fruit user!?”

“They are both monsters! They must be with Roronoa himself!”

Coby stares at Jennifer in wonder while Luffy smiles and turns to the remaining pirates, pointing at them.

“Prepare a boat for Coby! He wants to join the marines, so stay out of his way!”

“Y-yes” the pirates say in union, too terrified to do anything more.

“Luffy-san…” Coby is in tears at his gesture.

* * *

 

“You actually ate the rubber-rubber fruit, awesome, and you Jennifer can control the wind!” Coby is gushing at the powers of his new-found saviors and friends as they travel from Alvida’s base in the boat the acquired from her men.

“Yeah, but Jennifer I had no idea you could control the wind itself! You kept saying that you were unable to fight, but you are lying, no?”

“I was telling the truth, Luffy. I had no idea I could do that to begin with, but it can’t be devil fruit powers, I’ve never had one in my life!”

“Did you eat a weird fruit that tastes nasty?”

“No! I’ve only had my apples, pears and bananas, but nothing like that! And besides I can still be in water considering I had to push the boat into the ocean for you! You fell over from just being knee deep in!”

“Hmm you’re right! But that means you don’t have powers and that it was the ocean itself who saved you!”

“Wait how does the ocean have to do with this!?”

“It must have just have been a coincidence and the ocean winds gathered while u was aiming!” Luffy starts laughing as Jennifer rubs her forehead.

“That is way too big of a coincidence to make sense!”

“But then what is it if not a devil fruit power? That is how we all gain powers you know!”

“I was cursed as a baby and my parents made me eat a devil fruit without me knowing.”

“Really!?”

“No! Because I could still take baths as a child and teenager!”

Coby is watching Jennifer and Luffy bicker back and fourth in amusement. After the two years he have been a slave to Alvida, he has never felt any real comradery like the one he is witnessing in front of him.

“Um, excuse me, but for how long have you known each other?”

“Three days.”

“Only three days!?”

“Yeah, she is weird though, she fell from the sky and now she can control the wind! Maybe she is secretly from an island of clouds who can fly- wait can you fly!?” Luffy lit up in excitement.

“One, yes I fell but I can assure you I am not from an island in the skies-“ Luffy pouts at this “-and two, probably? I just received the powers, so I don’t know. I could try that out in the future when I have a better understanding of what I can actually do.”

“That is so cool!” Luffy is now sparkling as he starts rambling more crazy ideas for Jennifer to try later.

“Ah, but guys, if you both are looking for the One Piece…” They both turn to Coby “… that means you have to get into the Grand Line, right?”

“Yep, that’s right! That is also why I need a strong crew, I have one right here-“ Luffy points at Jennifer, who tilts her head a bit downward and rubs her hand behind her head as she shies away from the attention “-and one of them is being held captive at the place you’re going.”

“You mean… Roronoa Zoro!?”

“If he’s a good guy, I’d ask him to join us!”

“What! You’re dreaming again! You can’t, he’s like a monster!”

“I have to agree with Coby, if what Coby told us about him is correct, then he is a pirate hunter which will attack us both once he realizes that we are pirates.”

“We can’t sure about that yet.” Luffy smiles as he looks towards the horizon, with Jennifer just sighing and Coby being flabbergasted, he can’t be that stupid, can he!?

“It’ll never work!”


	3. Chapter 2: Persistent & Patient

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keep yourself around 2k words she said.  
> It would be much easier, she said.  
> Well, here I am with over 5k, because I love myself. Also some quick notes to add:  
> *This will follow the third view of Jennifer, in order to reduce repeated scenes and conversations from canon.  
> *Jennifer is 22 years old, she will be 24 after the time-skip, making her the fourth oldest after Robin, Franky & Jinbei.

”Monster, huh?”

”Yeah, Luffy-san, rumor says he’s like a bloodthirsty hound. He wanders around the sea and hunts down fugitives, he’s a monster in the form of a man.”

“Oh yeah?”

“So, let’s drop the idea of recruiting him-“

“I haven’t made up my mind about recruiting him yet, but if he’s a good person…”

“He’s arrested because he’s bad!”

“I don’t like this as much as you Coby-” Jennifer turns to Luffy “-but if you are persistent in recruiting him, you should at least judge him and have a backup in case anything goes south, or the marines find us.”

“That is a good idea Jennifer-san, please listen to her Luffy-san!”

“Hmm, we’ll see when we are there! Shi shi shi!”

Coby wants to say something, but Jennifer puts a hand on his shoulder, shaking her head to tell him to drop it for now. Luffy yells and points at the horizon, an island slowly coming into view. They enter the docks and Coby makes sure to anchor the boat while Luffy enjoy the scenery.

 “We’re finally at the marines’ base! You’re great Coby!” Luffy cheers, viewing the large tower of the marine base in the distance. “We’ve actually reached our destination!”

“Of course! That’s the basics of navigation! If you wander around at sea every time, you’ll never become a pirate, you should at least find a navigator to join you guys.”

“That is true, we only found Alvida’s base by chance and before that we were not following any direction and roamed at random. Taking Luffy’s list of roles he wants, a navigator would be the most important one, before a chef and doctor.”

“Alright! Let’s go eat!”

“Are you even listening!?”

* * *

 

“We’ll go our separate ways here!” Luffy rubs his stomach as he lets his food sink in “You do your best to be a great marine, alright?”

“Yeah! I believe you can do it; the marines will help you boost your confidence and combat skills! I’ll make sure to train myself so we both can achieve our goals!” Jennifer smiles as Coby rubs his tears from his eyes.

“I will! Thank you so much! Both of you will become great pirates, although we will be enemies in the future.”

“Say, I wonder if Zoro is still being kept at the marines’ base.” At the mention of Zoro’s name, the entire bar panics as civilians scramble to get as far away from Luffy as possible, gluing themselves to the opposite wall. Coby leans in to whisper to the duo;

“Looks like we can’t yell out the name Zoro…”

“The reputation he holds is true alright, question is if that’s it or if he did anything to frighten them?”

“I’m too afraid to ask, Jennifer-san, but either could be the truth. I did just saw a notice on the street, there’s someone called captain Morgan at this base, he might know of the incident, but he might not tell you guys about it.” The bar panics again at Coby’s mention of Morgan, prompting the trio to exit the bar.

“Ha ha ha ha! What an interesting restaurant! I got to go there again!” Luffy is laughing at the incident.

“That’s strange… I have a bad feeling about this. I could understand why they’d be scared after hearing Roronoa Zoro’s name, since he could escape at any time, but why would they be afraid of a marine captain’s name!?”

“Well, he could’ve done something bad, right?”

“That’s impossible!”

“Luffy might be right, Coby.” Jennifer interrupts “If the villagers are frightened by a name that should be a symbol of protection and peace, then there is something hiding in the background. This Morgan may have ulterior motives or use fear to keep control of this base.”

“I mean, you may be right, but it’s impossible for any marines to be bad!”

“I guess we have to find out by going there!” Luffy smiles as he takes the lead towards the base.

* * *

 

“It looks pretty ugly up close” Luffy stares at the marine base “Go ahead Coby!”

“B-but I’m not prepared yet! Besides that incident at the bar got me thinking…” Luffy starts climbing the wall, to the protests of Coby “Ah! Luffy-san!”

“I wonder where he is...?”

“You can’t find him easily, he’s probably being kept in a secret room or something-“

“Hey Luffy, I think I see him over here!” Jennifer shouts from further down the wall.

“Nice! Let me see!” Luffy climbs up the wall next to Jennifer, Coby slowly climbing the wall beside them. Once Coby sees the person at the other side, he drops his grip and falls to the ground shaking.

“T-that black bandana and cloth around his waist… It’s him! It’s Roronoa Zoro! It must be with that intimidating aura!”

Luffy and Jennifer are looking closer at the man, who is tied to a wooden cross in the middle of the open courtyard. The man is wearing said bandana and cloth, together with a white shirt and black pants. He is tied with rope at his ankles and waist and there are signs of fatigue on his body.

“So, he’s Zoro, huh? Looks to me those ropes are pretty easy to break.”

“S-stop joking! If you free him, he could make a mess in the town and even kill you!”

“Hey! You!” Luffy and Jennifer turn to the man, while Coby hides behind the wall. “Could you please… come over here and untie me? I’ve been tied up for nine days and I’m exhausted.”

“Look, he’s smiling.”

“H-he talked!?”

“I’ll repay you, I could hunt down a fugitive and give you the rewards. I’m not lying. I’ll keep my word.”

“I don’t trust this at all, Luffy I am sensing real bad energy from him, are you sure you want to do this?” Jennifer turns to Luffy, who is still smiling.

“He can’t kill me, because I’m strong too.”

“Fair enough, if that is what you want, I will not stop you.”

“No! Don’t do it Luffy-san! If you free him, he’ll kill us and escape! Jennifer-san please can’t you stop him!?”

“I would, but even if I have only been with him for three days, I know for a fact he never backs down from his mind once it’s set. Besides he is my captain, I got to follow his commands, and if he wants to recruit this guy, I won’t complain too much, until I got a sword through my back and sense death knowing it’s coming.”

Coby starts sobbing as he realizes the duo is a hopeless case, not noticing a ladder being places next to him. A young girl climbs up the ladder and turn to hush the trio. With the attention now on the girl, they watch her climb over the wall and bring along a plate of rice balls to who we now can confirm is Zoro.

“Hey, what are you doing here?”

“Luffy-san, Jennifer-san, go stop her! She could be killed!”

“Do it yourself.” Luffy ignores Coby to watch the scene unfold.

“Do you want to die or something? Get lost!”

“Umh, I made some rice balls for you! You haven’t eaten for a long time, right? This is the first time I made rice balls…” The girl looks up to Zoro with expectation and wonder in her eyes.

“I’m not hungry! Go away!”

“But-“

“I don’t want it! Leave me! I’ll kill you if you don’t go!”

“Roronoa Zoro! Don’t pick on little kids, or else I’ll have to report to my father about it.” Entering from the east is a short man with blonde hair, wearing a fancy suit and escorted by two marine soldiers. Zoro sneers at him.

“If it isn’t the captain’s basatrd son…”

“Some weirdo came.”

“He must be someone important in the marine… Thank goodness the girl is safe now.”

Said man starts being irritated by Zoro’s off-hand comment.

“Bastard? Don’t get cocky, my dad is a lieutenant!”

“Well, that answers the question of who he is. I don’t think he is who you think he is Coby.”

“But he’s a marine, he will make sure the girl gets to safety, right Jennifer-san?”

“Doubt it, I have seen plenty of these types, just watch.”

Helmeppo walks up to the young girl, taking one of her rice balls.

“Well hello, little girl. These rice balls look pretty tasty.”

“Stop it!” Helmeppo takes a large bite out of the rice ball and proceeds to spit it out in disgust.

“Horrible! You put too much sugar in it! You’re supposed to put salt in these things!”

“But- but I thought they’ll taste better if they’re sweet…!”

“How could someone eat something like this! Damn it!” Helmeppo throws the rice balls on the ground and stomps on it several times.

“Ah! Stop it! Stop! He can’t eat this anymore!”

The trio at the wall is watching the scene unfold, Coby being shocked at Helmeppo’s actions.

“That’s so cruel! That girl worked so hard to make them!”

Jennifer turns to look at Coby, giving him the “ _told you so_ ” look.

“Don’t worry! The ants will eat them all up!” Helmeppo starts laughing as the young girl starts to cry.

“That’s cruel, I tried really hard to make them…”

“Aww, don’t cry! It’s no wonder I hate little brats like you.” Helmeppo sighs and turns to a sign right behind her “It’s all your fault, you know? Didn’t you see what was written here?” He points at the sign “Anyone who helps a prisoner will be charged with the same crime. – Marine captain Morgan.”

Helmeppo walks up to the girl and lifts her chin, giving her a disgusted look.

“You know how scary my dad can be, right? You would’ve gotten the death penalty if you’re a grown up!” Helmeppo lets go of her and turns to one of his marine escorts. “Throw the brat out.”

“Huh?” Helmeppo strides over to said marine and grabs him by the collar.

“I’m telling you to throw her out! Are you trying to disobey me!? I’m telling my dad!”

“A-Aye sir!” The marine starts sweating at the mention of his father. The marine walks over to the young girl, lifts her up and tosses her over the wall. Luffy quickly runs to catch her right before she hits the ground, Coby checking for any injuries on her.

“Are you alright? T-those bastards.”

“I told you so, position and status can easily corrupt people to do terrible things.” Jennifer walks up to the duo “I have seen it first hand from where I come from and stories have told of several versions of the same actions.”

“You have seen it? You really are amazing to notice it quickly, Jennifer-san!”

“It’s not really impressive, I always doubt people I meet, makes any backstabbing easier to handle.”

“Huh!? But is that not a bit cruel don’t you think?” Luffy climbs back over the wall without the duo noticing.

“If you don’t state it out loud, it’s not rude or cruel.”

“Eh, but won’t you avoid getting friends if you feel like that with everyone?”

“….”

“Umh, I forgot to thank your friend for catching me…” The young girl speaks up, causing Coby and Jennifer to turn to her.

“Ah! No, it’s ok, I can’t believe he could do that to you or anyone for that matter!”

“Disgusting, throwing a kid like that.” Jennifer hunches down to be at head level with the duo. Her expression softens up. “What is your name?”

“My name is Rika.”

“Nice to meet you, my name is Jennifer, and this is Coby, the guy who saved you is my captain, Luffy.” Jennifer turns to point at him and now notices that he is gone. “Ah, where did he go?”

“I saw him climb over the wall just a moment ago.”

“Ah, then we will jump over if we hear any screaming or fighting.”

“But what if the marines hurt him?”

“Don’t worry, he will be fine, he is pretty strong.”

“Really?” Rika’s face lights up.

“Yeah! Luffy is really strong!” Coby joins the complimenting “He saved me from a pirate crew, so I could join the marines-“ Coby cuts himself off at the mention of the marines.

“Are you in doubt after that display, Coby?”

“I don’t know, I really want to join the marines, it is my dream after all… But…”

“You should not let the action of one man or group change your mind.”

“Eh?” Coby turns to Jennifer, who is looking up the wall.

“Yes, what he did was horrible, but that should not define an entire organization’s reputation as a whole.” She takes a deep breath “Are all marines evil?”

“Well, no. There are some good marines out there-“

“Are all pirates evil?”

“No, there is you and Luffy-san-“

“Have your dream changed after meeting us?”

Coby is unable to form any words as he takes his time thinking. He is about to answer her question when Luffy jumps back over the wall and join the three of them.

“We should fall back for now.”

* * *

 

On the way back into town, Luffy tells them about his entire conversation with Zoro, about the bet he made with Helmeppo to stay alive for a month to be freed and how he enjoyed Rika’s rice balls.

“Really?!?”

“Yep! He ate all of it!”

“I’m so happy!”

“Hmm...” Coby thinks for a moment. “Is he really that horrible person his reputation says he is…?”

“No, he isn’t!”

“Brother didn’t do anything wrong.” The trio turns to Rika “-It’s just that the people in this town are afraid of him. He got arrested because of me, he killed Helmeppo’s pet wolf because he let his wolf run around and scare everyone…”

“So, you’re saying that Zoro’s only arrested because he killed Helmeppo’s wolf?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re right! So maybe he has a bad temper but chasing down fugitives isn’t that big a crime either.”

“The only bad guys are the Morgans! You’ll get executed if you disobey them, so everyone is afraid of them!”

“That sounds like a dictatorship alright.” Muffled yelling can be heard from down the street, causing the four of them to look in that direction, spotting the other villagers lined up along the road, bowing their heads as Helmeppo and his marine escorts walk down the road.

“Do you want to be like Roronoa Zoro? I’m going to publicly execute him in three days!”

“Three days?” This catches Luffy’s attention.

“I’ll use him as an example for all of you! It’s going to be pretty interesting!” Luffy walks up and stands in front of Helmeppo.

“Didn’t you say you’ll give him a month?”

“Who are you? How rude, I was only joking with him! Only an idiot would believe that!”

Luffy is in deep thought as Helmeppo starts cackling and making faces to represent how idiots would look. All the villagers look in shock as Luffy punches Helmeppo, Coby rushing forward to grab Luffy from behind to restraint him, as Jennifer runs up to be support for whatever Luffy plans next.

“Luffy-san! Stop please, calm down!”

“Coby, Jennifer, I have decided! I’m going to have Zoro join our crew!”

“T-this is bad, who is he!?”

“He dared to hit the captain’s son! Captain Morgan won’t forgive him!” The villagers are terrified at the scene unfolding in front of them.

“Luffy-san, please, they are marines!”

“I don’t care! A bastard is still a bastard!”

“Y-you dare hit me!? My dad hasn’t even hit me once!” Helmeppo is furious as he lets his marine escorts help him up. “I’m marine captain Morgan’s son! I’ll tell him about this!”

All the villagers jump of fright at the announcement and starts scrambling to hide in their homes and nearby stores.

“Why don’t you fight me yourself!?” Luffy growls at Helmeppo, he knows he could break free of Coby’s hold at any time, but he is waiting for any sign of a fight.

“You’ll regret hitting me!” Helmeppo smirks as he is being carried away “You’ll get a death sentence for it!” As Helmeppo is carried further away, his cries of revenge are blurred out.

“He ran away…”

“It’s meaningless to his people like him.”

“And yet you gave him a real punch, Luffy.” Jennifer sighs as Rika runs up to Luffy while the rest of the villagers hide.

“You were so cool! I was scared to death!”

“Really? I should have hit him a couple more times!”

“Did you not just say it was meaningless to hit him… Scratch that, I want to punch him as well next time I see him.”

“Not you too, Jennifer-san!”

“R-Rika! Come here!” A woman yells from her doorstep, causing Rika to run up to her and be led into the house.

“Don’t talk to strangers! You’ll be executed too if you were mistaken as one of their friends!”

“Mom, they are good people! And so is Zoro-“

“Don’t be silly! Did you sneak into the execution site again!?”

“No, I didn’t!” Rika glances over her shoulder to make an apologetic look as the door closes behind them.

“Looks like we’re going to be in trouble! If the captain gets mad, he might send marines after us!” Coby starts freaking out.

“We’ll deal with it when the time comes! I’m going to talk to Zoro, Jennifer tag along, since he will be our new crew member!”

“Aye, I for some reason doubt it will work as you planned though…”

* * *

 

“Yo!”

“It’s you again, and you brought someone? I told you I don’t want to be a pirate!”

“I’m Luffy and this is my crew member Jennifer! If I loosen up the ropes, then you’re going to join us, okay!?”

“I’ve told you clearly! I have things that I need to do, besides I’m not going to be a bad guy like a pirate.”

“Why do you care? Everyone already thinks you are a bad guy.”

“Straight to the point as always…”

“I don’t care what they say about me! I haven’t done one thing that I regretted in the past and it will be the same for the future, I won’t become a pirate!”

Luffy ponders for a minute, before turning around pouting.

“I don’t care! You are going to join us!”

“Don’t decide for yourself!” “How are you this arrogant and persistent!?” Zoro and Jennifer shout at the same time. Luffy turns back to Zoro.

“Hey, I heard that you use katana, is that right?”

“If I’m not being tied up, I could use a katana.”

“Where is the katana?”

“That bastard took it. It’s something that I treasure the most other than my life!”

“Oh? Treasure, huh? It must be something great!” Luffy have now decided on his next course of action. “Okay! We are going to go to where the bastard is… and get your katana back!”

“What!?”

“But if you want me to return it to you, you’ll have to join us!” Luffy starts laughing.

“That’s dirty!”

“Blackmail, really Luffy?”

“Ok! We are going!” Luffy grabs Jennifer at the back of her collar and starts dragging her towards the base tower, Zoro’s cry to wait to go over his head. They quickly arrive at the main building within minutes. Luffy lets go of Jennifer and starts looking for any sign of marine soldiers.

“That’s strange, there aren’t any marines around, are they having a meeting?”

“I agree this is weird, even if there is a meeting, there should be at least some marines guarding the entrance.”

“Never mind the katana, we can’t even find the idiot son like this! Hey, do you think they have food in there?”

“Do you really think about food now!?”

Shouting can be heard from the top of the building, causing Luffy and Jennifer to look up.

“Huh? There seems to be people up there?”

“If everyone is up there, then we can break in through the main entrance, quickly get the katanas and get out- “

“Let’s go up and see!”

“What!?”

Luffy launches his arm, reaching for the roof of the building. Once he is connected and secured a grip, he snares Jennifer with his other arm and he prepares for launch.

“Wait Luffy are you seriously- “

“Rocket!”

Luffy lets his arm retract as both he and Jennifer and sent flying, the latter screaming in horror as they soar through the sky. As they reach the top, he let go of the edge to let them soar for a few more meters above the rooftop, causing all the marines to notice them. The duo starts to lose altitude and fall.

“Oh no! We are going too fast!”

“What is that!?”

“Something flew up from down there!”

Luffy, with his quick thinking, grabs a hold of the ropes used to lift Morgan’s statue, causing all the marines to lose their grips on said ropes. Luffy lands and puts Jennifer down as the statue hits the railing and breaks in the middle, everyone watching in horror as the upper half of the statue falls over the edge and down towards the ground. They slowly move their attention to the young duo.

“… Sorry.” Luffy lifts his hand apologetically.

“Capture them! I’m going to kill them!” A large built man, wearing a iron chin guard and a axe as his right hand roars, causing all the marines to snap into attention.

“Yes sir!”

“Dad, it’s him! He’s the one who hit me! I told you he’s no good!”

“Ah! We’ve been looking for you!” Luffy runs up to Helmeppo and grabs his arm and pulls him along into the building, Jennifer right behind them.

“Let me go! Dad help me!”

“T-they headed into the main building!”

“After them!”

“I’m not letting you guys stop him!” Jennifer shouts as she creates a blast of wind in front of the door, causing all nearby marines to get knocked back.

The duo rushes through the hallways, dragging Helmeppo as he screams for help.

“Where’s Zoro’s katana!?”

“I’ll tell, I’ll tell! Just stop dragging me!”

“They’re over there! Stop where you are!”

“Ah, crap they already caught up!? Luffy hurry and get the information out of him!”

“Hurry up and tell me where Zoro’s sword are!”

“I’ll tell you, please stop pull me!” This causes Luffy to stop in his tracks, still holding Helmeppo by the collar. Jennifer covers Luffy’s back in case the marines behind them catch up.

“Okay! Spill it!”

“They’re inside my room, we-we already walked past it.”

“Why didn’t you say so earlier!?” Luffy punches Helmeppo.

“That hurts! Don’t hit me!”

“Don’t move! Raise your hands above your heads!” The marines have not caught up to the escaping duo. Jennifer braces herself for any guns firing, but Luffy uses his other hand to tap her shoulder, signalling her to stand behind him as he moves Helmeppo to the front and uses him as a shield.

“Go ahead and shoot!” Luffy charges into the group of marines, Jennifer tailing after him.

“What!? You’re using him as your shield!”

The marines hesitate as Luffy and Jennifer run past them, Luffy turning around to keep screaming Helmeppo at the back so they could not attack them. Helmeppo points to a door further down the hallway. Jennifer slams the door open as the duo rushes into the room.

“Is this the room?”

Helmeppo nods as Luffy spots three katana leaning against the wall.

“Alright! Found the katana!”

Luffy walks up to inspect the katana while Jennifer looks out a nearby window.

“But there are three katanas here, Hey, which one belongs to Zoro?” Luffy looks down to Helmeppo to notice he has passed out. “What’s wrong? Did you faint?”

“Oh no! Luffy!”

“Huh?”

“Marines are circling the execution site! Coby and Zoro are surrounded!”

“What!?” Luffy joins Jennifer at the window and watches the scene unfold outside. He drops Helmeppo on the floor, throw the katana bands over his head and grabs a hold of the window sill as he pushes himself back, stretching his arms to make himself into a slingshot.

“Hurry Jennifer!”

Jennifer hesitates for a second before she runs up to Luffy and holds his back for dear life. Luffy shouts his skill phrase as he launches out of the window, falling towards the execution site right as Morgan shouts to fire. Luffy lands right in front of Zoro and Coby, blocking all bullets being fired, causing surprise for everyone who was on the ground. Jennifer lets go of his back and quickly steps to the side as the bullets slowly extend Luffy’s skin.

“You!”

“Luffy-san! Jennifer-san!”

“The straw hat boy…”

“It’s no use!” Luffy shouts as he lets the bullet fly out of his body, causing all marines to cower and duck in fear of being hit. Luffy starts laughing as Morgan and the others start to recover, Coby passes out from the shock and injury in his shoulder and Jennifer starts trying to tie up one of Zoro’s arms.

“What kind of human are you!?”

Luffy turns to look at Zoro and answers;

“I am, the one who will become the pirate king!” Luffy takes the katana off his shoulder and holds them out for Zoro “Look, which one is your treasure katana? We couldn’t figure it out, so we brought all three of them.”

“All three belong to me, I use three katanas.”

“Resisting the marines here together with us will make you an outlaw! Or maybe you want to die here?”

“Are you the offspring of the devil…” Zoro can hear Jennifer mouth “Of course he is” as she struggles to get rid of the ropes “Forget it, rather than dying here, why don’t I accede to your request and become a pirate!”

“Yes! We got our second companion!” Luffy cheers.

“Ok Luffy, I’m happy we got a new member, but can you help me release him before we lose him five minutes directly after gaining him!?” Jennifer hisses as her hands burn from trying to pull the rope too much.

“Ah, right!”

“That guy, how the!?”

“How did he manage to repel those bullets!?”

“That rascal isn’t normal… He must have eaten one of the devil fruits!” Morgan recovers from incident; the marines being shocked at his announcement of Luffy’s devil fruit.

“Captain! They are going to take off Zoro’s ropes!”

“Don’t let them take it off!”

“If guns don’t work, we’ll use swords to kill them!”

“Damn! This knot is so hard to untie.”

“Hurry up!”

Coby wakes up, holding his hand against his head as he takes in the scene;

“Ah, did I faint? What did- AHHHH!?”

“I can’t concentrate, give me some time.

“We don’t have time for you to take time!” Zoro and Jennifer yell at him.

“Luffy! Jennifer! Zoro! Watch out!” Coby cries out, watching the approaching marines.

“Oh, I untied one side.” Luffy holds the rope in front of Zoro’s face.

“Idiot! Hurry and get me my swords!”

“Shit, the marines are approaching!” Jennifer’s hands shake as she desperately tries to untie Zoro’s arm.

“All who oppose me must die!” Morgan shouts as the marines strike the trio, Coby watching in fear, Morgon pleased, until he notices something is off. That is when it’s revealed that Zoro was not only free but was guarding all the swords using his three katanas. Jennifer falls to the ground as she starts blowing on her rope burned hands.

“Damn, that was way too close!”

“What the- “

“Cool!”

“All of you better not move!” The marines panic “You move, and I’ll kill you!”

Zoro turns to face Luffy.

“I already told you I’d be a pirate with you, either way, after this incident with the marines I’ll be an outlaw too. But it’s okay, I still have my own goals! I’m going to become the world’s greatest swordsman! I no longer care if my name is clean or not, bad guy, good guy, it no longer matters, if my name is known worldwide! If either of you do something that ends up in the way of my goal, I will have you both cut open your stomach open to say sorry!”

“Good! To be the world’s number one swordsman, since you want to be the pirate king’s crew member, if you can’t even accomplish something that small, then I would be very embarrassed as well!”

“Heh! Well said!”

“Hey guys, if you are done having your differences settled- “Jennifer stands up and points to the marines behind Zoro “- then maybe we should finish these guys?”

“What are you guys doing!? Hurry up and finish them all!”

“Zoro, Jennifer, duck!”

Jennifer hunches down as Luffy spins around to swing his right leg.

“Gomu gomu no… Whip!”

He rotates his spin back, stretching his leg as it hits all the marines behind Zoro, sending them packing. Both Zoro and Jennifer stand up once his leg returns to him.

“What are you…?”

“I am a rubber man!”

“Super cool!” Coby is star struck.

“Wait, rubberman!?”

“Earlier on the rooftop, I saw that woman control the wind!”

“Captain, we can’t kill these three!”

“They are too strong!”

Luffy taps his right feet on the ground as Zoro and Jennifer stand at each of his sides in front, Zoro’s back against the marines to show his dominating side and Jennifer taking a deep breath as she clasps her hands together, feeling the wind surge round her like a calming shield. The marines cover, Morgan standing his ground as his fury is slowly building.

“This is an order… Whoever just said that, get a gun and kill yourself, I don’t need useless soldiers!” The marines are stunned “That’s an order!” Morgan roars, causing all the marine soldiers to slowly pick up their guns and direct them at their own heads.

“What the hell do these dumb marines think they’re doing!?” Zoro prepares to charge, but Luffy manages to rush in before him.

“I am the marines worst enemy! If you have guts, then execute me!” Luffy punches into Morgan, who uses his axe hand to block his attack. This causes the marines to slowly bring their guns down in shock, and possible hope.

“Luffy-san defeat these marines!” Coby shouts from the far back, Zoro watching. The marines who still have their guns pressed against their heads feel their hands feel lighter as their guns are pushed away by the wind, some even being pushed to their ground themselves.

“I’m sorry! I still can’t control this power of mine yet!” Jennifer shouts “Please do not follow the commands of this madman!”

“People like you, without status, have no right to oppose me! I am captain Axe-Hand Morgan!” Morgan prepares to strike with his axe-hand.

“My name is Luffy! Nice to meet you!”

“Go to hell!” Morgan slices at Luffy, who jumps over the strike, which cleaves the nearby fence in the middle.

“The fence just broke in half just like that!”

Luffy puts his feet together and stomps hard against Morgan, sending him falling back, but he quickly stands up as he keeps going against Luffy, trying to hit him with his axe but Luffy keeps dodging every single one with ease. It’s like he is dancing around Morgan. Everyone stares in awe, waiting for Luffy to give him the final punch, but…

“Wait!”

Luffy punches Morgan.

“You idiot, I said wait!”

Everyone turns around to the voice, who turns out to be Helmeppo, who is holding Coby at gunpoint.

“If you want this guy to survive, then don’t move! If anyone moves, I’ll shoot!”

“Luffy! I… I don’t want to be in your way! I’m not afraid of death!” Coby shouts without any trace of fear.

“Okay, I know! You stupid, Coby’s not afraid of death!”

“Hey! You idiot, I told you not to move!”

“Go ahead and shoot- wait Luffy behind you!”

Morgan is towering behind Luffy, preparing to bring his axe down on him.

“I am the great marine captain!”

“Gomu gomu no…”

“Dad, hurry!”

“PISTOL!”

As Luffy launches his fist to punch Helmeppo, Morgan slowly falls back down. Helmeppo is punched away from Coby while it is revealed it was Zoro who cut down Morgan.

“Nice… Zoro!”

“Leave it to me, captain!”


	4. Chapter 3: The Third Wave

The aftermath of the battle could be felt across the execution site. With both Captain Morgan and his son Helmeppo knocked out on the ground, the marine soldiers nearby are hesitating. Something is keeping them back.

“If you still want to arrest us, come and get us.” Zoro glances over to the soldiers, making sure to not let his attention of Captain Morgan in case he suddenly recovers.

The soldiers look at each other, seemingly searching for a united response or course of action. They find their answer as they all throw their weapons in the air, cheering and screaming their lungs out to the sky.

“Yes!”

“We’re free!”

“We are out of Morgan’s control!”

“Long live the marines!”

The tense atmosphere vaporized as the soldiers celebrate their freedom from their tyrant of a marine captain, ignoring the three criminals watching them.

“What’s going on? They seem to be happy that Morgan was defeated?”

“Everyone hated Morgan!” Coby answers Luffy’s question.

“With both Morgan and Helmeppo taken out, the marines no longer feel threatened by their superiors and can now decide their own path to justice, for the better or worse is up to them to decide.” Jennifer is about to continue her speech, when they notice Zoro collapsing.

“Zoro?!”

“Zoro-san!”

“Quick, we need to treat him!”

* * *

 

“I’m full! Haven’t eaten for nine days, almost starved to death!” Zoro laughs as he finishes his last plate of food. Sounds can be heard from outside, as villagers are flocking to peak in through the window to the small house belonging to Rika and her mother, to catch a glimpse of their saviors.

“Then it’s impossible for you to last a month!” Luffy keeps devouring food, stealing a plate from Jennifer, who slaps his hand away when he tries to go for a second plate from her.

“Sorry, even I ate quite a lot…” Coby scratches behind his head.

“Don’t worry! Keep eating, you saved our town!” Rika’s mother takes some of the empty plates away to the sink, Rika walking up to stand between Luffy and Jennifer.

“You guys are so strong!”

“Yep, I’m strong, I’ll get stronger later on!” Luffy drains another plate of food down.

“Thank you, though I really need to practice controlling my power, I’m surprised I’ve been able to keep the damage to a minimum the past few days I’ve had it.” Jennifer smile at Rika.

“Oh yeah, what are your plans next?” Zoro asks his new crew members.

“We are going to head for the Grand Line!”

“What?! You’re saying crazy things again! Just you three, how can you enter the grand line? Don’t you understand, the world’s strongest pirates all gather there!” Coby says.

“We’re going for One Piece, it won’t hurt to head that direction!”

“Zoro-san, even you’re saying this rubbish!”

“What are you worried about, it’s not like you are coming with us.”

“Even thought I’m not going, I will still worry! Can’t I? Can’t I worry about you guys?” Coby stands up and calms down from his frantic screaming “Even though we just met, we are friends!”

“Yep! Even thought we have to part, we’ll always be friends!” Luffy grins as Coby lightens up a bit, only to quickly shy away.

“I never had friends growing up- “ this catches Jennifer’s attention “-every time I would be picked on, no one would ever stand up for me, but the three of you taught me to live by my dream!”

“Don’t worry, Coby, I know how you feel, I have been in the same boat as you.” Jennifer takes a quick moment to formulate her next few words, Coby notice her expression turning dark for a second, before she gives him a small smile “There is nothing wrong with worrying about the ones you care for, no matter if they are friends or family. You just have to let them also take their risks to reach their own dreams, just like how you try to reach yours.”

“That’s why we’re heading for the grand line!” Luffy adds in.

“First of all, you’d better worry about yourself!” Zoro taps Coby’s head lightly using the hilt of one of his katana “Even though you were doing chores on a pirate ship, you’re still a small pirate. Don’t underestimate the marines’ ability to gather information, if they know your past, they won’t let you join for sure! Jennifer is correct on the matter that you right now have to take that risk yourself if you want to become the marine you want to become.”

The door opens, revealing a senior marine soldier at the opening, with several of the other soldiers behind him on the outside.

“Excuse me! We are wondering, are you really pirates?”

“Yes, I just found my second crew member, so that would make us pirates now!”

“Even though you are pirates, you saved our town and base, for that we are grateful. But since you are pirates, as marines we cannot allow you to stay any longer.” The senior adjusts his cap “Please leave this place immediately. As for the events that occurred here, we will be reporting it to the headquarters.” This causes the villagers to react.

“Hey! Marines! What kind of bullshit are you saying?”

“Are you kidding me? Or have you all gone nuts?!”

“They are this town’s saviors!”

Their protests echo out as Luffy stands up.

“Well then, let’s go! Thank you for the warm food ma’am!”

“Luffy-san…”

“Are you really leaving?”

Both Coby and Rika are ignored as Luffy, Jennifer and Zoro start walking towards the exit, the senior marine walking up to Coby.

“Aren’t you with their group?”

“Eh? I- I’m, I’m not with them!”

“Please hold on.” The trio stops by the door. “Is he telling the truth?”

“I know what this guy used to do.” Luffy starts telling the senior all about Coby’s pirate life “I can’t remember where but, he used to be with this fatty female pirate, I think her name was Alvida-“

“Stop… Don’t say anymore…” The faint whispers of Coby could be heard, Luffy walks up to poke Coby’s forehead.

“It was a fat and ugly female pirate, this guy spent two years there-“

“SHUT UP!”

Silence falls over the room as Coby punches Luffy in the face, Luffy recovering as he punches Coby back.

“You deserve a beating!” The grind never falters from Luffy’s face as he keeps giving Coby small punches. Jennifer and Zoro watch from the door, smiling as they both realize what Luffy is doing, the senior marine recovering from the small shock as he shouts at Luffy to stop. Zoro walks up and grabs Luffy’s collar from the behind to stop him from continuing.

“I know he isn’t your friend! Please leave this town immediately!”

The trio exit the building, leaving Coby with minor injuries on the floor. As they walk down the filled road to the harbor, Zoro taunts some of the nearby marines. They quickly reach their boat as Luffy unties the anchor rope and Jennifer jumps on the boat to prepare the sails.

“Nice act! This way, even though he’s been a pirate before, it wouldn’t be such a big deal!” Zoro praises Luffy’s quick thinking.

“I believe Coby will become stronger and more independent in the future!”

“I agree, I believe we will meet him one day in the future and see the progress we all have made by that point, would that not be exciting?” Jennifer glances over at the two boys.

“Imagine if we meet him on the grand line, he would kick all the pirates’ butts!” Luffy starts laughing, Zoro smirking.

“Time to go, or else there’s no telling what will happen! Not leaving anything behind, that’s what pirates are all about!”

“Haha! That’s what I’m saying!”

“You seem to quickly embrace your new role, Mr Pirate Hunter, you don’t happen to have studied your victims?”

“If you don’t observe your prey, you won’t find their weaknesses, that is part of the job.”

“Heh, I guess you are right.”

“Luffy-san!” The trio turns towards the road as they spot Coby running down the street, catching his breath as he salutes them. “Thank you very much! I will never forget you for the rest of my life!”

“I’ve never seen a marine saluting pirates!”

“Coby, we’ll meet again someday!”

Luffy and Zoro enter the boat as Jennifer unfurls the sails, their boat heading towards the horizon. Luffy and Jennifer wave back at Coby as they see the other marines gather behind him, the senior marine standing beside Coby as he shouts a command, causing him and all other marines to salute next to Coby. The island grows smaller and smaller as the vast ocean surrounds them, Luffy stretching out his arms in excitement.

“Yahoo! We’re off! Grand Line, here we come!”

* * *

 

Three days roll by, as the trio exchange some stories and small talk between each other, continuing to drift at random through the ocean.

“Ugh, I’m so hungry…” Luffy complains.

“It’s weird that neither of you have absolutely no navigation skills.”

“I’m a land crab and have not often been on boats to begin with, thanks to my motion sickness from my youth."

“Why? I’ve always been just wandering! You’re like me too, wandering and capturing wanted pirates for rewards.”

“I don’t remember me saying that I live completely off rewards! I was searching for a man, that’s why I left to the sea, but now I can’t find my way home. I had no choice but to start hunting pirates for a living, just to get a little bit for the living expenses.”

“Oh, so you’re lost?”

“Shut up! You are the one who’s lost!”

“Do you know which general direction your home is?”

“No.”

“Do you know any iconic signatures or land signs that can help lead you home?”

“No?”

“Then you are lost.”

“Shut up, rich coming from the woman who have never set foot on the ocean before!” Zoro calms down “Never heard of pirates who don’t know how to navigate! How do you expect to go to the grand line like this?”

“I have been trying to get it through his thick skull to find a navigator- “ Jennifer pokes Luffy’s head from the side “-but then he found you first. Luffy we should seriously find a navigator next.”

“And someone who knows how to cook and someone for singing-“

“Idiot! What are you going off on?!”

And within the next three seconds, all three of them fall on their backs, exhaustion taking them over.

“SOOO hungry…” All three let out, their stomachs grumbling. It’s when they lay on the boat that they all spot something in the sky, a large bird is soaring high above them.

“Oh! A bird!”

“Looks pretty tasty…”

“Fried chicken sounds good right now…”

“Let’s eat that bird!”

“How are you going to eat it…?”

“I’ll go get it! Watch my specialty!” Luffy stretches his arms to grab a hold of the mast, launching himself towards the bird.

“Rocket!”

Jennifer and Zoro watch as Luffy soars high into the air.

“Can’t believe he thought of that.”

“It’s the only thing he thinks of-“ Jennifer starts feeling ill “-I have been a passenger of too many rockets.”

“Ahhhh?!”

They both look up to see that Luffy have reached the bird, but that his head was caught in its beak.

“Huh?!”

“AHHHHHHH HELP!” Luffy screams in horror as the bird continues flying ahead.

“YOU IDIOT!” The duo screams as they each grab an oar and starts chasing the bird.

“What the heck is he doing?!”

“Shit, he will outfly us by this rate-“ Jennifer gets an idea “Zoro, grab my oar!”

“Huh?!” Zoro quickly grabs her oar and continues to row as Jennifer unfurls the sails and takes a deep breath.

“Please let this work!” She stretches her hands towards the mast, focusing on pushing the wind towards it. Slowly the wind starts to build up, filling up the sails and pushing the boat forward. Zoro stops rowing once the boat has picked up enough speed.

“We are catching up, nice Jennifer!”

“I don’t know how long I can keep this up but be ready in case something happens!”

“Alright, hold on tight!” Zoro uses the oars to steer the boat as it catches up to the escaping bird.

“Hey! Stop the boat!”

“The boat over there! Stop!”

“Huh?!” Zoro looks over his shoulder, Jennifer looking up as they spot three figures further ahead in the water. “There are people in trouble here too?”

“We don’t have the time or energy to stop! You guys get on yourselves!”

“What did you say?!”

The three men barely have time to catch the boat as it speeds past them, climbing onboard as they recover.

“Heh, your climbing skills aren’t bad.” Zoro turns his attention towards following the bird, Jennifer slowly running out of energy, thus the wind is becoming weaker, causing the boat to start slowing down.

“Were you trying to run us over!”

“Thank god…”

“Hey!” One of the three men pulls a knife out “Stop the boat! This is the pirate Buggy’s territory…”

Turns out that was not the world’s greatest idea as Zoro smacks them in the head and forces them to row the boat after the bird. Jennifer releases the wind and collapses on all her fours, taking deep breaths and letting small droplets of sweat run down her forehead. However, the bird manages to get away, losing sight of it.

“Ho-ho-ho…”

“We didn’t know you were Pirate Hunter Zoro! We’re really sorry…” All three are rhyming one two one two as they row.

“You three made us lose track of our friend! Put some back into it! If we don’t find our friend, you three are in for it!”

“Oh yeah, why were the three of you drifting in the middle of the ocean?”

“Yes, yes! Good question, you finally asked!”

“That girl!”

“Yea! That bad girl!”

“But, she’s real cute too!”

“The three of us just finished robbing a ship, and on the way back…”

They explain their encounter with the woman, how they found her on a ship with a treasure chest, after helping her out it turns out the chest was empty, and she had tricked them and gotten away with their treasure.

“… And that’s what happened, terrible, huh?!”

“She can predict the weather; this girl must be something special!”

“Wonder if she’d join us…”

“That should not be the first thing on your mind, Zoro!”

“If I find her, I’m going to kill her!”

“First we got to get our loot back!”

“Yea, if we go back empty handed to Buggy, he will…”

“Who’s Buggy?”

“He’s our pirate leader, haven’t you heard of Buggy the Clown? He’s a dangerous man who ate one of the devil fruits.”


	5. Chapter 4: Welcome to the Circus

”We’re here, master Zoro, mistress Jennifer!”

The duo has arrived at the island currently overtaken by Buggy the Clown, which is abandoned as the trio of pirates explained to them that they chased the villagers to the outskirts of the island.

“We better meet that Buggy guy then, because we might be able to hear some information about Luffy.”

“Agreed, let’s take a look around.”

Jennifer and Zoro explore the town, completely run down and abandoned as the pirates have told them. They scuffle with some pirates on the way, which are easily knocked out by Zoro.

“Speaking of fighting, have you figured out anything with that wind power of yours?” Zoro glances back towards her as they continue walking.

“Ah, well, at first I thought I could only create wind, but later on I realized I was not creating the wind, but rather controlling it, like at the marine base when I knocked their weapons away and when I let our boat sail faster.” Jennifer puts a finger on her chin, thinking for a moment “Me and Luffy also found out that it’s not a devil fruit power.”

“It’s not a devil fruit?” Zoro takes a sharp right turn in to an alley.

“No, because after we both saved Coby from Alvida and had to push the boat into the ocean, Luffy could barely stand knee length in the water while I was fine being up to my waist as I pushed the boat off the shore. Devil fruits cannot stand water, right?”

“Sea water was what Luffy said. Have you felt any different than before you discovered it?”

“Not really, I feel the same as before, it’s just odd to find out I could do something like this after 22 years of living.”

“Luffy said you fell out of the sky, could that be it?”

“Well, I don’t know? It could be, but… It would not be an explanation.”

The duo has been walking for a while, Zoro leading while Jennifer followed close by, they had just exited the alley they were in and were now back at the port, in front of the same boat they came in.

“Did we seriously just walk in circles!?”

“Huh, I thought we walked towards the center.”

“It was just one straight road; how could we have gotten- wait. Why did you walk off the main road to begin with!?”

“Shut up! I was just taking a shortcut!”

“Shortcut my ass! You were just picking alleys at random!”

“I was not!”

“Yes, you were!”

Both Jennifer and Zoro glare at each other as the three pirates sneak a peak over the edge of the boat.

“Uhm, Buggy keeps his base on that rooftop over there…” One of the pirates point towards one of the rooftops nearby. Both Zoro and Jennifer sends each other a glare as they walk towards said rooftop.

“I knew it was there all the time.”

“Bullshit!”

Jennifer takes the lead as they head to the building, starting to hear loud shouting as they close in. They enter the building next door and climb up to the rooftop as they watch the scene unfold. Luffy is tied up and locked in a cage, a large cannon in front of him with an orange haired woman and a clown. Said clown is pressuring the woman to fire the cannon, but she is hesitating. Another clown takes the matches from her and lights the fuse and is then knocked unconscious by said woman, who fights off the pirates using a wooden pole. She is trying to stop the fuse, noticing too late that more pirates are about to strike her from behind. This is when Zoro leaps into action, using two of his katana hilts to smack the pirates in the head.

“How many does it take to beat one girl?”

The other half of the pirates gets pushed of the building by a force of wind as Jennifer runs up to the cannon and help the woman stop the fuse from igniting.

“Zoro! Jennifer!” Luffy is relieved to see his crewmates.

“Did you get hurt?” Jennifer is holding the hands of the young woman, inspecting her small burns.

“I’m okay.” She responds.

“Thank goodness, you actually found this place! Get me out this thing, quick!”

“You!” Zoro turns to Luffy “Is this your idea of fun!? You get caught by a bird and got carried away, and now when we finally find you, you’re in a cage!? Stupid!”

All the pirates mumble among themselves at the mention of Zoro’s name, the clown that was pressuring the woman stepping forward.

“You’re definitely Zoro, are you aiming for my head?” The clown is now revealed to be Buggy.

“Nope, not interested. I’ve stopped hunting pirates.”

“But I have some interest, if I kill you, my name will become more famous.”

“If you don’t want to die, then just leave me alone.”

The pirates among them start cheering on Buggy as they both prepare to strike.

“If you don’t show your true skills now, you’ll soon be covered in blood!”

“Fine, if that’s what you want!”

Zoro slashes through Buggy, who splits into three pieces from his slashes.

“That guy’s so weak!?” Luffy is surprised.

“He died really easily…” Zoro notices the rest of the pirates smirking and staring at them, this does not go unpassed by Jennifer either, who stares at Buggy’s body with unease.

“Hey, guys! Hurry and get me out of this thing!”

“Okay.” Zoro walks up to Luffy’s cage, trying to open the lid “This thing won’t open without a key, these iron bars won’t slice.”

“That’s true.” Luffy sits there as the pirates start laughing.

“What is so funny!? Just give us the key! I don’t want to fight you guys!” Zoro is starting to get annoyed.

Their laughter continues as Jennifer notices one of Buggy’s hands start to float, gripping a small dagger and then flying against Zoro. Jennifer quickly lifts one of her hands towards the hand and creates a large burst of wind, knocking the hand away from its direction. The pirates stop laughing as Buggy stands up, putting his pieces back together.

“You are too clever young girl, to notice my power of the Chop-Chop fruit! That’s the name of the devil fruit I ate! No matter how many times you try to slice me up, you can’t because I’m a splitting man!”

“He stuck his body together and that woman just created wind!? I thought the devil’s fruit was just a myth!” The orange haired woman gasps.

“A splitting man, that guy’s a monster!” Luffy is surprised, even though he is a rubber man.

“Thanks Jennifer, damn I knew he had a devil fruit, I should not have been that careless.”

“No problem, but you should never turn your back on an enemy that quickly if you feel some sort of unease.” Jennifer and Zoro turn to Buggy as said pirate starts spinning his dagger in glee.

“I see, because of her interference I missed your vital body parts… Roronoa Zoro! But now that you know you can’t slice me, it was an o-kay victory!” Buggy smirks.

Buggy’s pirates start cheer on Buggy again as the three of them prepare to engage in another combat. Luffy however have other ideas.

“Trying to stab from the back, that’s dirty! You big nose!” This causes all the pirates to react in shock as Buggy turns to Luffy, his anger visible.

“That idiot, he could’ve said anything but that!” The orange haired woman is also in shock.

“Who are you calling a big nose!” Buggy sends his right hand towards Luffy, aiming with his dagger against Luffy’s throat. Luffy manages to block the incoming attack by catching the dagger with his teeth, breaking it in two.

“I swear, I’m going to take you down!” he mocks Buggy.

“Oho… Take me down?” Buggy starts laughing “You’re going to take me down!? You’re hilarious! You four are going to die right now on the spot!”

 “I’m not going to die!” Luffy laughs with Buggy.

“And just exactly how do you plan to take me down in this situation?! Boys! Laugh at him!” Buggy and his pirate crew starts laughing at Luffy.

“Run away! Jennifer! Zoro!” Luffy screams at the duo.

“What!?” They both react.

“Hey! Your friends came to rescue you, but you’re telling them to run away!? How about you!?” The orange haired woman stares at Luffy.

Both Jennifer and Zoro take a moment to think about Luffy’s statement, they both nod at each other in understanding.

“Ok.”

“Let’s go.”

“Stupid idiots! You think I’m going to let you both go!? Chop-chop cannon!” Buggy shouts as he fires both his hands towards them.

Jennifer and Zoro quickly split up as the hands split up to chase them both. Zoro deflects the incoming attacks using his katanas, while Jennifer is keeping her distance using the wind as her barrier. Buggy keeps laughing in glee at the action.

“They are both running away! You think you can escape from captain Buggy!?”

As Buggy keeps attacking the duo, Jennifer reaches her main goal, the large iron cannon. She focuses her wind power underneath the pipe and flips the cannon over, aiming it towards the pirates.

“Gyaaaaah!”

“The cannon’s pointing this way!”

“That thing still has a Buggy special cannon ball in it!” Buggy screams in horror.

Zoro uses this pause to reach Luffy’s cage as Jennifer turns to the orange haired woman.

“Hey! Light it!”

“Eh!?”

“Just hurry!”

“Oh, okay!”

The young woman quickly lights up the fuse.

“Stop it!” Buggy’s cries are in vain as the cannon fires, a large explosion is sent through the pirates and blasts that part of the rooftop away. Zoro quickly checks over the cage before turning to the two women.

“This is a good time to go, who are you anyway?” He addresses the unnamed woman.

“That kid is our navigator!” Luffy smiles proudly.

“You’re an idiot, aren’t you!? You’re still on about that!? If you’ve got time to say things like that then how about thinking of a way to get out of that cage!?”

“Hey, that’s a good idea, I’ll do that!”

“No, it’s okay, you just stay in that cage!” Zoro grips the bars of the cage as he slowly lifts the cage over his shoulder.

“Hey! No way is he lifting that!?”

“Dammit, I’m not going to let them escape!” Buggy coughs as the smoke starts to clear, but by the time he finally sees anything, the four of them are gone “Where did those four goes!?”

* * *

 

Further down the road, we spot our three heroes hiding on the rooftop, behind one of the roof windows. Luffy is banging his head against the iron bars to try and bend them, without success since he is rubber after all. The screaming from the searching pirates can be heard in the distance.

“Open, you, stupid, cage! Open!”

“We’re in a dangerous situation here, but what’s been started must be finished, I suppose.” Zoro puts down the cage to regain some strength.

“We don’t have much time to recover here, we need to get far away enough and lay out a plan of action. But before that we need to get Luffy out of his cage.” Jennifer looks down the street “If we carry the cage over to the next roof there is a ladder sturdy enough for you to carry Luffy down with you.”

“Aye, sounds like a plan, I’m surprised you are not the captain of a crew yourself.” Zoro lifts up Luffy again as they start climbing over to the next roof.

“For the same reason as you have for following Luffy.”

“Heh, fair enough, speaking of that how did you join him?”

“Well for one, I was not blackmailed, I was more of forced considering I landed on his boat. He could have just left me at that island after the entire ordeal with The Crescent Moon, but he decided I for some reason was fun to have tag along, that or he took pity on me.”

“I did not take pity on you!” Luffy stops banging the iron bars “I was serious when I said that you were funny! But I also find you cool to hang around with!”

Jennifer starts climbing down the ladder, reaching the bottom and watching Zoro slowly climb down with Luffy.

“I’m cool?”

“Yeah, I mean you have this weird expression when you talk, but also you can control the wind! You are fun to be with!”

Jennifer shyly looks to the ground as Zoro reaches the bottom, Luffy smiling at both. Jennifer looks up to the duo, her face a bit brighter.

“So, how about we find a chainsaw for that cage?”


	6. Chapter 5: The Dog and the Lion.

”We’re now quite far away from the pub, they won’t be able to catch up with us immediately now.” Zoro pants as he drags Luffy’s cage further down the empty road, Jennifer walking beside him keeping an eye out for any of Buggy’s pirates “We’ve escaped for now, but this cage is starting to annoy me!”

“Yeah. If this thing doesn’t open I won’t be able to fight all those bad guys if they come.” Luffy keeps biting on the iron bar, like it’s going to snap in two by his mere willpower.

“Leave any enemies to us, we still have enough energy after that scuffle. If someone has the key, it must be Buggy.” Jennifer stops in her tracks as she looks at a dog further down the road, sitting in front of a closed shop.

“What’s with this dog?” Zoro places Luffy’s cage next to the store and sits down by one of the wooden poles to rest.

“What is this? Is it really a dog? Hey, look guys, the dog isn’t moving at all.” Luffy starts poking the dog.

**“** Whatever, right now we have to think of a way to get you out of that cage.” Zoro sinks further into the ground in exhaustion.

“I wonder if it’s dead.” Luffy pokes the dog’s eyes, causing it to bite Luffy’s head.

“You stupid dog, what the hell do you think you’re doing!?”

“You idiot, do you even know the seriousness of the situation here!?” Zoro screams at Luffy as he is trying to remove the dog, who have now started attacking his arm.

Both Zoro and Luffy collapse on the floor, sighing. Jennifer looks at the duo and turns to the side when the same orange haired woman from earlier walks up to them.

“You three, what on earth are you guys doing. If you just lie around here in the middle of the street, Buggy will definitely find you!”

“Hey, navigator.” Luffy looks at her nonchalantly from the cage.

“Says who!? I just came to repay my debt to you, because you saved my life back there.”

“Repay?”

At the mention of repayment, the woman throws something towards Luffy. It turns out to be the key to Luffy’s cage.

“The key! You stole the cage key!” Luffy sits up and brightens up.

“Yeah, even if I think so myself it was a really dumb thing to do, because of that I couldn’t steal any of the treasure.” She sighs.

“Yes! I was wondering how I could get out of this thing.” Luffy starts shaking the iron bars in excitement.

“So, the trouble we took running away paid off in the end.” Zoro smirks.

Luffy reaches for the key… Only for the dog to swallow it whole. Everyone stares in shook as Luffy starts strangling the dog in desperation.

“You stupid dog! Spit it out, that thing you just swallowed isn’t food!”

“Oi! You people! Don’t do anything to Shushu!” Everyone stops in their actions as they turn to the other side of the road, watching an elder man walk up towards them. He is fully doned with a make-shift bronze chest piece and knee caps. He presents himself as Boodle “I’m the village’s leader, or in other words, the chief!”

“Is this dog’s name Shushu?”

“Yeah.”

“What is he doing here?”

“He’s guarding this store. I just came to give him some food.” Boodle puts down a bowl of dog food, which Shushu quickly downs.

“You’re right, now that I’m looking carefully it’s a store, I see it’s a pet food store.” The orange haired woman looks over the store sign.

“The owner of this place is my friend…” Boodle continues telling the tale of how his friend opened the store years ago with Shushu and how he passed away due to sickness. Shushu has since then been guarding the store, even if he knows his owner has passed away. Boodle mentions that Shushu might keep the store as his treasure and that is why he is still guarding it.

“It’s an unendurable thing. I tried to take him into the shelter a few times, but he won’t take a step away from this place. If I just left him here, I think that he’d stay until he starved to death.” Boodle finishes his tale.

“Speaking of people-“ Jennifer turns to the other woman “I see Luffy managed to drag you into this mess, who are you?”

“Her name is Nami, and she is our navigator!” Luffy cheers from the cage.

“Since when did I agree to that!?” Nami yells at Luffy.

“How did you two meet to begin with?” Zoro joins the conversation.

“Oh, we just happened to be at the same place at the same time!” Nami dodges the truth to the question.

“She was the one that got me into this cage.” Luffy answers nonchalantly.

“HEY!”

“And that explains everything up until we arrived. Why am I not surprised?” Jennifer sighs.

They don’t have time to dig deeper into the details, because a loud roar is heard from down the street.

“What is it, that roar!?” Nami steps back.

“That is that guy! The beast trainer Mohji! Run away!” Boodle yells as he high heels down the opposite direction, Nami closely behind him.

“Oi, now something’s coming up, give me the key you little thing.” Luffy tries talking with Shushu.

“Ignore him for now Luffy, we got company.” Jennifer watches the enemy as she and Zoro stand up, Zoro having his hands rest on his katanas. A large lion walks up to the trio, his rider sitting cross-legged on top trying to look menacing.

“Well, I found all three it seems. I’m Buggy’s pirate crew member, the beast tamer Mohji. Poor things, you all tried so hard to run away.” Mohji smirks “Captain Buggy is pretty mad; you guys have committed a pretty serious crime.”

“What’s that weird hood you’re wearing?” Luffy asks him.

“You idiot watch what you’re saying! This is my hair!”

Jennifer taps on Zoro’s shoulder to get him to lean in closer. She whispers something into his ear and nods at Luffy. Zoro looks for a moment at the scene and releases his grip on his katanas and nods back at Jennifer. The duo slowly starts to sneak to the side.

“You… You’re in the cage, so you don’t know how scary I am…” Mohji is starting to become irritated “I’m telling you, there is no animal in this world that won’t obey me! That includes that dog over there!” Mohji stretches his hand out to Shushu “Shake a paw-“

Shushu bits his hand., Mohji shakes him off and is feeling the pain sting a bit.

“You’re just a nameless common thief.”

“You gave up on the dog?”

“I have a reason to kill you all…” This is when Mohji realizes that Jennifer and Zoro are no longer behind Luffy’s cage and have managed to walk down to the neighboring house to hide. They can see Mohji realizing his mistake as he is really annoyed.

“Kill him and bring me Roronoa Zoro, Richie!” Mohji yells out his command, as Richie the lion assaults Luffy’s cage, breaking it into several pieces.

“Yahoo, the cage finally opened!” Luffy jumps out of the cage, dodging Richie’s incoming attacks.

“I can’t believe that worked.” Zoro turns to Jennifer “Wait, why are they only after me?”

“You are the only one with a reputation here.”

“Right, pirate hunter.”

“Pirate Hunter. That is probably why Buggy is so fixated on you.” The duo barely catches Richie slapping Luffy and sending him flying into a nearby building.

“That was instantaneous! He talks back to me and that’s what he gets. Okay Richie let’s go find Roronoa Zoro, cause if I kill him I’ll earn an even better reputation.” Richie however does not move, he is focused on Shushu in front of the food store.

“Look at that… It’s a pet food store. Goodness Richie, hurry up and finish your meal.”

Shushu valiantly resists Richie, but Richie easily injures and forces him to make way for Richie to enter. Zoro silently watches, but notices Jennifer twitching.

“What’s wrong?”

“I can’t stand this, I want to do something, but I can’t.”

“… Are you afraid of facing him?”

“Of course, I am! I am no where near as strong as you and Luffy! Yes, I can control wind, but against that brute force it’s impossible!”

“…” They both continue watching the scene, Mohji and Richie exiting the store and then deciding to burn the building down to show their dominance. Shushu sits in front of the store and vails as the pirates start heading down the road, in the same direction Jennifer and Zoro are hiding. Witnessing the act of setting the store on fire and remembering Boodle telling the story of Shushu, Jennifer has had enough and runs out of the alley.

“Oi!” Zoro hisses at her, but it is too late.

Jennifer stops in the middle of the road and faces Mohji and Richie.

“Hmm? Aren’t you one of Roronoa Zoro’s friends? Well isn’t this our lucky day, Richie.”

“I will not allow you to go away after what you did.” Jennifer can feel her legs slightly shake, she wants to run, she really wants to run away. But she can’t let him go, not after what he did to Shushu and the store.

“Huh? Won’t let us go? I believe Richie will be on a kill-streak today! Kill her.”

Richie charges at Mohji’s command, closing in to his prey. As he takes the final leap to reach her, Jennifer lifts her arms and hold her hands towards Richie and closes her eyes. She feels the wind calmly tickle her arms, before it bursts from behind her and towards Richie, sending him flying. Richie lands on the side and quickly stands up.

“What is this!?” Mohji is surprised.

Richie charges again and quickly dodges when Jennifer once again sends the wind forward. Richie closes in and is within reach to strike, but that is when Mohji sees Jennifer smile in victory.

“I got you!” She yells and lifts her right arm high to the sky.

Richie loses footing as both he and Mohji are lifted high into the air by a large amount of wind. They both struggle to get out, the wind holding them in an iron grip. Jennifer uses her left hand as support by holding her right arm and makes a throwing motion, which results in Richie and Mohji being sent slamming into another building. Jennifer let’s her arms hang loose, taking deep breaths to recover some of her energy, sweat rolling down her forehead. Just pushing them took a bit of strength but lifting them was a completely different level. She falls on her knees as Zoro walks out from his hiding spot and walks up to her.

“So, you had some guts, eh?” He gives her a small smile.

“Heh, guess I did, but to be honest I could barely stand, and the adrenaline kicked in.” She looks at the burning store.

They both watch the store burn down, Shushu’s cries echoing the area. Luffy enters from behind another building and witnesses the burning store. He walks up to the duo and asks what happened, they retold him the events and how Mohji and Richie are now laying knocked out in a nearby building. Once the building has burned down, Boodle and Nami enter from another direction.

“They’re all the same… Pirates are all the same!” Nami grits her teeth “They just casually take everything people hold dear!” Nami turns to the trio, more specifically Luffy and is about to charge him, but Boodle restrains her “I’ll kill you right here and now, before you get the chance to gather crewmates and attack towns like this one!”

“Hey, stop it girl!” Boodle is trying his best to hold her back.

“As if you could beat me.” Luffy sticks out his tongue at her.

“What!? Let’s find out shall we!?”

“Would you two cut it out already!?” Boodle begs the teenagers.

Luffy walks towards Shushu, and hands him a package of pet food.

“This was the only thing left!” He smiles at Shushu as the dog stares at the package. Nami calms down at this act of kindness.

“You did good! You put up quite a fight! Not that I was there to see it, but I can tell!”

Shushu is silent as he picks up the pet food and starts walking down the road. He turns his head towards Luffy and gives him several happy woofs to Luffy.

“Yeah! Good luck to you too!”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow. Ehm. First of all apologies for the long wait. I blame exams and... ehm video games. Second of all I need to make sure that whoever continues reading after this chapter is 100% aware of what is going to happen.
> 
> As I mentioned at the prologue, this will contain OC X Canon and another Canon ship. These will be ZoLu & OC X Sanji. I will add these tags now to warn people who prefers other ships.  
> Second of all when it comes to other tags such as violence etc, I will add those tags the moment a chapter containing those subjects emerge AND will also warn in the notes before the chapter itself. If I manage to miss tagging/warning, please DO contact and tell me asap so I can fix it before more damage is done.  
> Last but not least, the updates from now on will vary depending on several factors, but I aim for once per week.

”Sorry for yelling at you!” Nami has by now calmed down and realized something to make her change tone.

“It’s okay. Someone important to you was killed by a pirate. I’m sure you got your own problems to worry about, not that I want to hear about it.” Luffy brushes dust off his pants.

“I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE!” Boodle screams to the heavens above “It’s not fair! It is not! Even Shushu and these kids have been fighting for us! How can I, the mayor, sit by and watch my home be destroyed without lifting a finger!”

“Settle down mayor!” But Nami is quickly overruled by Boodle. “There are some fights a man cannot back down from, am I wrong, kid!?” He turns to Luffy, who in return is smirking at him.

“You’re spot on, old man!”

“Don’t egg on him!”

Boodle continues his rant by explaining how their old town was destroyed by pirates 40 years prior and how they rebuilt it, however he could not finish the story before a giant ball of flame went through the neighboring houses, sending shockwaves that knocks everyone prone. Boodle starts seething with anger.

“It’s like my still beating heart has been wrenched out! I will never forgive them for this! I will not be crushed twice!” Boodle declares an act of war as he starts rushing towards Buggy’s base, Nami cries for him to stop completely ignored.

“The mayor… was crying.” Nami keeps staring at the direction Boodle ran.

“Really? I didn’t notice.”

“Things are starting to get exciting!” Zoro looks as Luffy starts laughing, Jennifer shaking her head, smiling.

“This is no time to be laughing!” Nami starts to question the sanity of the trio in front of her.

“It’s alright, I like that old man. I won’t let him die!” Luffy keeps smiling. “We’re going to the Grand Line, we have to go back and get that map you told us about! Join my crew!” Luffy extends his hand forward.

Nami is silent for a small moment, before she extends her hand forward, only to smack Luffy’s hand. “I refuse to become a pirate, call it an alliance instead. We’re both working towards our individual goals!”

* * *

 

Moments later they are standing in front of Buggy’s base, Luffy just had saved Boodle from Buggy’s grip.

“Listen, I don’t care whether you fight or not, you guys do as you wish, I’m just here for the map and the treasure.” Nami reminds everyone.

“Yeah, we know.” Zoro calmly responds back.

Luffy punches Boodle unconscious to prevent him from charging into battle, taunt Buggy some more with his “red nose” and the battle is on. Buggy immediately fires his special Buggy cannon ball, only to have Luffy reflect it right back at him, destroying the building.

“Yay! Their numbers have decreased! Shall we start!?” Luffy turns back to the trio, smiling.

“What the hell are you!?” Nami screams.

“I’m a rubber man.”

“I’m not asking for the name!”

The smoke from the building clears up, showing that Buggy had survived using his subordinates as human shields.

“You’re chatting around making a lotta noise, like you’re not scared.” Buggy drops his shields, revealing both him and Cabaji being perfectly fine, with Mohji waking up behind them, screaming bloody murders that Buggy used Richie as a human shield and is then thrown across the floor by Buggy when he finally tells him that Luffy is a devil fruit user. The party dodges as Mohji flies past, crashing further down the road, Cabaji suddenly charging at the party, only to be blocked by Zoro. Cabaji uses fire to force Zoro to move backwards, separating him from the party. While they fight on equal terms, Nami tells Luffy and Jennifer that the treasure is in the ruined building and that the map is on Buggy, before she runs off, promising to meet again if they get the map. The fight continues as Buggy interferes and grapples Zoro’s legs in the middle of combat, but thankfully Luffy stops his hands in time, allowing Zoro to block Cabaji’s incoming attack and finish him off.

“Cabaji!?” Buggy growls in surprise.

“I’m going to sleep now.” Zoro yawns as he lays down on the ground, casually taking a nap.

“Yeah, you sleep, I’ll finish this.” Luffy flexes as he prepares for combat. “Jennifer, stay out of this, this is my fight.”

“Aye captain.”

Behind the unsuspecting duo are Mohji slowly waking up, with the help of Richie nudging him. Mohji stands up and witnesses the scene, Luffy fighting Buggy, Zoro sleeping on the ground with Cabaji knocked out and Jennifer standing by the sidelines. His blood slowly boils as he jumps up on Richie and cries out.

“Richie! Fetch!”

Richie leaps at Jennifer, who barely notice them in the last minute and jumps out of the way. Richie keeps launching towards her, causing her to go full defensive and create distance between the two of them. However, Mohji decides to swap tactic and orders Richie to attack Zoro. In desperation to keep her crewmate safe, she blasts Richie away, but Richie quickly recovers and manages to slash her left arm badly, causing her to cry out in pain.

“Ha-ha, that is what you get for what you did earlier, shrimp!” Mohji taunts her, watching as she clutches her arm, struggling to contain the pain. Jennifer grits her teeth as she desperately tries to come up with a plan to stop Richie from reaching Zoro, who was still sleeping behind her. She takes a deep breath as Richie charges her again, and unleashes a giant blast of wind, who pulls Mohji and Richie and slams them into several nearby buildings, officially knocking them out. With the newly acquired exhaustion and her injury, Jennifer collapses, missing the rest of Luffy and Buggy’s fight.

* * *

 

Jennifer wakes up a moment later, by Luffy patting both her and Zoro’s head.

“Oi Zoro, Jennifer, get up!”

“Did you finish the fight?” Zoro sits up and observes the scene.

“Yeah, we also got the map and the treasure.” Jennifer tries to sit up, only for her arm to scream in pain and she quickly clutches her arm.

“Ah, are you alright!?” Nami rushes to Jennifer.

“Honestly, no, I’m not ok.” Jennifer slowly stands up, her left arm dripping blood onto the pavement. She has a hard time to focus on what is going on, but she notices when the villagers arrive and check over their knocked-out chief.

“Why did you do this to our chief!? Who are you!?” The villagers were aiming their weapons at Luffy.

“We’re pirates.” Luffy answers completely serious. Zoro starts laughing, Nami starts screaming at Luffy “Why did you say that!?” and Jennifer was wobbling back and forth, she was not used to this amount of blood loss.

“Let’s run away!” Luffy yells as he grabs Jennifer and hauls her and a bag of treasure away, Zoro and Nami running right behind them as the villagers chase them out. The villagers almost catch up, but Shushu stops them, allowing the party to escape.

They all reach the port, where the previous three pirates had been hiding, waiting on Nami, only to run away the moment they saw Zoro standing next to her. They board the ship and Nami helps Jennifer treat her wound, before she targets Luffy for having left his half of the treasure at the island for the villagers. Jennifer and Zoro starts laughing when Nami tries to force Luffy to swim and everything are smooth sailing with Nami as their new friend.

But Nami knew better than to let them too close.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh hey, it's me.  
> We are finally progression through the story, I've decided to step the pace up a bit. But hey, by the time I finally reach Wano, the manga will be way past it!  
> Hope you'll enjoy!

”It’s fixed!” Luffy yells out in joy as he holds his signature straw-hat, which Nami had just repaired for him.

“I just mended the cuts, I think that should do it, try not to poke too much-“ Nami’s warning however comes too late as Luffy already comedically poked a hole in his straw hat.

“You guys are too noisy! I can’t sleep with all this noise…” Zoro grumbles.

“Hey I’m hungry.” Luffy peaks up.

“You just had food an hour ago! I am not handing out any of our rations we have left!” Jennifer retorts, grabbing the small bag of the few rations they have left. “By this pace we can barely survive till tomorrow!”

“You guys need to be more prepared, you barely bring food or water and you underestimate the sea!” Nami says, mostly aimed at Zoro who asks if she can share some food. Luffy spots something in the distance. “It’s a miracle you’ve survived up to this point, even with Jennifer’s help!”

“Hey! There’s an island!” Luffy shouts, causing Nami to bring out her binoculars to scout the island.

“That island is no good, it’s unpopulated so it’s useless, let’s just keep going- Wait!” Nami now shouts as she watches Luffy’s boat speed ahead of hers.

“Let’s see if we can find someone who would join us there…” Luffy laughs as he rows towards the island.

“And let’s look for food too, you know both Nami & Jennifer were right, we seem to have no plans!” Zoro yawns as he relaxes.

“And who do you think derails every single plan we come up with the past few days!?” Jennifer grumbles as she watches the island rear closer.

* * *

Upon reaching the island, it turns out Nami was correct that it was unpopulated, forest spreading as far as the eye can see, some small mountain formations poking up from the treetops. Luffy, Jennifer & Nami head to explore the island as they leave Zoro to nap on the boat. They discover some weird creatures, such as a chicken wolf, lion pig and… A guy stuck in a chest. After helping him out with his dilemma and restocking on fruit, the gang returns on their path to the Grand Line.

“We need to plan things more!” Nami says. “Are we going to the Grand Line like this?”

“Agreed, we have only followed Luffy’s wild whims for days now, if we don’t come up with, A: how we will find more important additions to the crew, and B: how we can safely enter the Grand Line, we are most surely to die!” Jennifer adds.

“Oh, that’s right, although uncle cabbage gave us plenty of fruits, we don’t have any meat!”

“We are not talking about the food supplies!” Nami and Jennifer retort.

“And we don’t have any sake to drink either, how boring!” Zoro peaks up.

“Let’s not worry about the problem of food and drinks first!” Nami yells at him. “The place we’re going to is the most dangerous place in the world, every pirate in this world wishes to get the treasure there, so we need a better ship, crewmembers and equipment.”

“Oh! What do we do then?” Luffy asks.

“We need to plan ahead what we need and who we need. For a start getting a bigger ship to fit everything is our highest priority right now, we can’t live on two small rowboats. Second is which roles we need-“ Jennifer puts up her hand and starts counting with her fingers “We need to find someone with cooking experience as soon as possible if we don’t want to starve. We also highly need a doctor if we want to even survive out here, so either that or a chef is highest priority. After that we need someone with experience handling ships & repairs, in other words a shipwright. After that would be lesser roles, such as lookouts and quartermasters. After that would be whatever you fancy.”

“We also have to prepare and plan for the journey ahead. There’s a village due north, we should go there first!” Nami picks up a map from her bag as she points out the location. “First thing to do when we there is to look for a better ship!”

“And eat some meat!” Luffy cheers.

“Did you listen at all!?” Nami yells.

“Just… drop it for now Nami, he is stubborn like a mule.” Jennifer leans on the edge as she looks at her “Besides, knowing his damn luck, we might find what we need at said island.”

“But still…” Nami complements something in her head before responding “Alright, I guess you guys know most of how to handle it.”

* * *

 

“Wow so there really is a mainland!” Luffy slowly brings in the boat to shore.

“What are you talking about, of course there is, we just followed the map.” Nami answers, waiting for the trio to exit their boat.

“Is there a town that way?” Luffy asks.

“Yup, just a little one, apparently.” Nami looks at her map smiling.

“Whew, feels good to stand on solid ground again.” Zoro stretches as he finally exits the boat.

“You spent the whole time sleeping.” Luffy casually explains.

“How someone can sleep for so long during daytime still astounds me…” Jennifer remarks.

“Huh? Napping is something you normally can do whenever, right?” Zoro asks.

“N-no… What you do is sleeping, considering it’s for several hours, naps only is for one to two hours.” Jennifer responds.

“By the way, I’ve been kind of wondering…” Zoro looks in the distance, the rest following his gaze “Who are they?”

Up on the sea bank, four figures are hiding, three of them screaming and running away in panic once spotted by the party. The fourth member slowly looks back at the party, before standing up looking proud.

“I am Usopp, head of a huge pirate fleet and ruler of this village! My people and servants heap praises upon their captain’s name, the great captain Usopp!” By now he is in front of the party “If you’re thinking of attacking the town, think again! My eighty million followers can’t be stopped!”

“You’re lying.” Nami points out quickly.

“Gasp! Busted!” Usopp yells in panic.

“Who the hell says “Busted” when they are caught in the act!?” Jennifer sweat drop.

“See, you said “Busted”.” Nami says.

“Oh no, I accidentally let slip that I was busted, you scheming devil!” Usopp panics.

“Hahaha! Man, you’re funny!” Luffy laughs.

* * *

 

Later, the party are invited to the local restaurant by Usopp, Luffy was finishing the story of how they wound up on the island, including their search for a ship.

“Well, we don’t have any big sailing ships or anything here, but if there’s a ship, I know the one place that’ll have it.” Usopp responds.

“The one place?”

“There’s one huge mansion in town. The folks there are way richer than everyone else. I know the owner of that house, the owner, if you can call her that is just a young girl. She’s sick and weak, and bedridden!”

“Eh, why would a girl like that own a mansion?” Nami asks.

“Hey lady, more food!”

“And sake!”

“Are you even listening!?” Usopp yells at Luffy & Zoro. Jennifer shakes her head and asks Usopp to continue.

“About one year ago, she lost both her parents to sickness. All she had left was a massive fortune, mansion and an army of servants. Even with all the money and luxuries in the world, you’ll never find a more tragic situation.” Usopp finished his story.

The table falls silent, including Luffy and Zoro who had stopped eating. Nami slowly pulls her chair out from the table.

“Forget it, let’s give up on finding a ship here, we can try a different town.”

“Yeah, there is no rush! Let’s buy some food and then go!” Luffy smiles.

“Thank you for telling us about the situation here, but neither of us can in our moral compasses go and ask her for help when she has her own issues.” Jennifer says, “It’s better we move along in our search.”

“You are welcome, by the way, you said you were looking for crew members?” Usopp asks.

“Yeah, know anyone?”

“You can make me your captain!” Usopp smirks.

“No thanks.” All four bow their heads down towards the table in defeat at the absurd suggestion.


End file.
